Government to make Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme more attractive: Chidambaram

The government will modify the Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS) in the upcoming budget in order to make it more attractive to investors, finance minister P Chidambaram said at the launch of the scheme on Friday.

Chidambaram said the finance ministry would bring in the necessary changes to the scheme as suggested by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The upcoming budget would specify the changes, he said.

The finance minister was responding to suggestions made by SEBI chairman U K Sinha.

Speaking at the launch of the RGESS in Mumbai, Sinha said the scheme has to be modified to make it more appealing to middle income investors.

"We have to relook at the scheme from the point of view of further modifying it, so as to make it more sustainable and more beneficial in the long run for the same class of middle income investors," he said.

The scheme, announced by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in the budget for 2012-13, seeks to provide tax benefits to first-time investors in stock market, thereby encouraging them to save as well.