With the gold monetisation scheme not quite glittering with the public, a befuddled Finance Ministry on Friday held another round of meetings with the Reserve Bank of India and bankers to find ways to make the scheme more attractive.

The government has received just 3 tonnes of gold under the scheme, against the original aim to mobilise 20,000 tonnes of idle gold.

“We will take suggestions from stakeholders to make the gold monetisation scheme more attractive,” said Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das after the meeting. A number of temple trusts have shown interest in the scheme, he added.

Budget 2016-17 has provided tax clarity and now the government is trying to expand the reach of the scheme, which, along with sovereign gold bonds scheme, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November last year to reduce the demand for physical gold in the country.

While the gold bond scheme has been successful, the people haven’t quite taken a shine to the monetisation scheme.

The Finance Ministry had in January announced further relaxations in the monetisation scheme, including premature redemption of medium- and long-term deposits as well as a commission to banks for their services. It had also expanded the number of purity and testing centres for gold to be deposited.

Meanwhile, earlier this month the government issued a third tranche of sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) after raising over ₹1,000 crore in the previous tranche.

The third tranche, which was open during March 8-14, received over 64,000 applications for a total subscription of 1,128 kg of gold amounting to ₹329 crore.

“The trend during the third tranche of SGB shows that the scheme is gradually picking up among investors with greater awareness and more clarity about the scheme,” said the Finance Ministry.

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