Sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) are government securities denominated in grams of gold. SGBs can be held in a Bond Ledger Account (BLA) or RDG account with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or in a demat account with depositories such as National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) or Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL).
As per RBI, sovereign gold bonds can be gifted or transferred to:
- Persons resident in India as defined under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.
- Eligible investors, i.e., individuals, Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), etc.
To transfer your bonds from a BLA, you have to approach the Receiving Office (RO) with a transfer form (Form 'F') duly filled and signed (by the transferor and transferee) along with a copy of the certificate of holding.
In the case of a demat account, you can trade the bond in exchanges or via off-market transactions.
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