New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shifted around 100 tonnes of its gold kept in bank vaults in the UK to its own vaults in India in a move aimed at saving storage costs, according to media reports.

This is the first time since 1991 that India has undertaken such a large-scale overseas transfer of gold reserves.

Economist Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council, said, “While no one was watching, RBI has shifted 100 tonnes of its gold reserves back to India from the UK.”

“Most countries keep their gold in the vaults of the Bank of England or some such location (and pay a fee for the privilege). India will now hold most of its gold in its own vaults. We have come a long way since we had to ship out gold overnight in 1991 in the midst of a crisis,” he added.

“For those of my generation, the shipping out of gold in 1990-91 was a moment of failure that we will never forget. This is why this shipping back of gold has a special meaning,” he pointed out.

In 1991, when the country was in the grip of a severe foreign crisis with no money to pay for essential imports, the Chandra Shekhar government pledged gold to raise funds. The RBI then pledged 46.91 tonnes of gold with the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, to secure $400 million.