NEW DELHI: India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) said on Saturday it planned to set up a new domestic spot gold exchange that would bring more efficiency and transparency to bullion pricing.

NSE will create the exchange together with the India Bullion and Jewellers Association, which represents industry members in the world’s second largest consumer of the precious metal.

The new bourse will be overseen by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country’s market regulator, it added.

“This exchange shall bring in efficiency as well as transparency in the price discovery of bullion,” NSE managing director and CEO Vikram Limaye said in a statement.

NSE did not specify when the exchange, where jewellers, retailers, refiners and banks will be able to trade over a regulated platform, will start operating.

China, the top gold consumer, runs a similar bourse, where all domestic production and imported gold has to be bought and sold.

India’s central bank currently allows some domestic banks to import gold, which is then purchased by bullion dealers and sold to jewellers before going to retail customers.

India’s gold demand in 2021 stood at 797.3 tonnes, worth around $46.1 billion, according to the World Gold Council.