Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital suspends gold business to curb gold imports

MUMBAI: Reliance Capital has suspended gold sales to bolster the government's efforts to minimise imports of the metal, the company has said. Huge gold import coupled with week rupee is posing risk of high current account deficit. Both RBI and the government have been taking steps to curb imports.

"We have suspended gold sales because it was felt that the RBI and the government are taking steps to contain current account deficit by reducing gold import," Reliance Capital's managing director and chief executive, Sam Ghosh, said on Friday.

Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital operates in the gold business through three subsidiaries. The company has suspended sale of gold in physical form, including supply of gold coins for sale through India Post, as an investment product, and financing against it.

The mutual fund arm of the company, Reliance Capital Asset Management, too has decided to suspend new subscriptions in Reliance Gold Savings Fund, which has a corpus of 2,600 crore and a market share of 30%. However, existing customers will not be affected by the decision, the company has said. The company's commercial finance arm has suspended loans against gold coins.