Augmont Enterprises, an integrated gold trading platform, has entered into a strategic tie-up with NSE, to accelerate adoption of Electronic Gold Receipts (EGRs) and expects the Government to resolve GST issue soon.
EGRs are SEBI-regulated, exchange-traded instrument that converts physical gold into a dematerialised security held in investors’ demat accounts.
Ketan Kothari, Whole-time Director, Augmont Enterprises, said the company has already developed the required IT infrastructure and expects to list its EGRs in next three months, provided the GST issue is settled.
Both the company and NSE have made representation with Sebi, RBI and the Government to defer GST collection on Gold marked for conversion into EGRs, he said.
Industry seeks refund
The industry has suggested the Government to refund the three per cent GST on gold deposited for EGR conversion and collect the same when the EGRs are converted back to physical gold again by investors.
Kothari said the Government is expected to take a decision in two-three months as there will be no revenue loss for the Government.
Augmont will deploy its comprehensive ecosystem for EGR creation, redemption, liquidity provision, delivery and price discovery—bringing together its over 4.2 crore registered users, about 4,975 jeweller network on the SPOT platform, over 4,600 retail touchpoints, 80 Gold For All stores and API integrations with leading stockbrokers and financial service providers. Augmont is also an India Good Delivery accredited refiner, empanelled across exchanges including MCX for futures delivery across all gold contracts, and is an authorised participant for gold ETFs—creating a natural bridge between the ETF and EGR ecosystems.
Full price exposure
EGRs enable physical gold to be held, traded, pledged and lent through a single exchange-regulated framework. India holds an estimated 30,000–35,000 tonnes of gold in private hands. Gold depositors under EGR will retain full price exposure and can earn a return by lending their gold to jewellery manufacturers through NSE’s Securities Lending and Borrowing platform.
Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE said the NSE EGR framework has been created to establish a transparent, efficient and exchange-regulated marketplace for physical gold in India.
The empanelment of refiners and participation of liquidity providers are key building blocks in developing a trusted and robust bullion market infrastructure, he said.
Surendra Mehta, National Secretary, India Bullion and Jewellers Association said EGRs can be 100 times of what the tokenised gold market is today.
They offer something no blockchain-based gold product can by providing exchange-traded price discovery, guaranteed settlement, standardised quality and a lending mechanism that channels idle gold directly to the manufacturers, he said.
Published on July 15, 2026
