FAQ Page 1 - RBI - Reserve Bank of India
Retail Direct Scheme
Nomination related queries
Investment and Account holdings related queries
While the primary auctions are conducted generally on specified days of the week as given in the table below, these days may differ due to holidays or other considerations. Half yearly indicative calendars are published on RBI website for Government of India’s dated securities and Sovereign Gold Bonds whereas quarterly indicative calendars are published for Treasury Bills and State Development loans. For details visit /en/web/rbi
S. No. | Government security | Primary auction usually held on |
1 | Government of India Treasury Bills (T-Bills) | Wednesdays |
2 | Government of India dated securities (dated G-Sec) | Fridays |
3 | State Development Loans (SDLs) | Tuesdays |
4 | Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB) | Weekly windows announced by RBI in its press release |
G-Secs are credit risk free instruments in domestic currency. However, there are market risks if you sell before maturity. You may refer to ‘Government Securities Market- A primer’, published on RBI website, to understand various risks associated with government securities.
The returns on Government securities are dependent on various features of the securities. You may refer to ‘Government Securities Market- A primer’, published on RBI website, to understand the factors affecting the returns on government securities.
S. No. | Government security | Minimum investment amount/quantity (as on Nov 12, 2021) |
1 | Government of India Treasury Bills (T-Bills) | ₹10,000 |
2 | Government of India dated securities (dated G-Sec) | ₹10,000 |
3 | State Development Loans (SDLs) | ₹10,000 |
4 | Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB) | One gram of gold |
For dated G-Sec, T-Bills and SDLs – The following limits apply if you purchase these securities through the non-competitive segment of primary auctions:
S. No. | Government security | Maximum investment amount/quantity (as on Nov 12, 2021) |
1 | Government of India Treasury Bills (T-Bills) | The aggregate allocation of all non-competitive bids will be restricted to a maximum of 5% of the aggregate nominal amount of the issue within the notified amount as specified by the Government of India, or any other percentage determined by RBI. |
2 | Government of India dated securities (dated G-Sec) | ₹2 crore (face value) per security per auction. |
3 | State Development Loans (SDLs) | 1% of notified amount (face value) per auction |
For Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) – An individual may not subscribe to more than 4 kg of SGBs per fiscal year. The annual ceiling will include bonds subscribed under different tranches during initial issuance by Government and those purchased from the Secondary Market.
There are two ways to buy Government securities through Retail Direct platform:
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By placing a bid in the primary auctions of dated G-Sec, T-Bills and SDLs (Non-competitive segment only, i.e., by only entering the desired amount of securities, without entering a price). For Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs), you may place a bid during the subscription windows announced by RBI on its website. For step-by-step details on bidding in auctions, you may refer to the User Manual on the Retail Direct Portal.
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By placing a buy quote in the secondary market portal.
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After logging into the Primary Market Retail Direct platform, select the ‘Primary Market’ option beside the Dashboard, at the top of the page.
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Select a security to bid from the ‘Auction Watch’ and enter the bid amount in the ‘Bid Entry’ window.
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Individuals can fund their bid either at the time of bidding or at a later time, but before the closure of bidding/subscription window. Bids which are not funded as on the date of submission of bids to RBI will be cancelled.
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For making payment for the bids, retail clients can use services like UPI (Transfer or Block) and Net Banking to transfer funds to a designated current account using Payment Gateways linked to the Online Portal.
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Based on the allotment advice received as a part of the auction result, the allotments will be made to the individual investors.
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In case of full allotment, each bidder will be allocated the entire Face Value for which bids were submitted. In case of partial allotment, a pro-rata allotment will be made to the bidder based on the partial allocation percentage determined in the auction.
For further details on the biding process, you may refer to the User Manual in the Help section of the Retail Direct Portal.
For dated G-Sec, T-Bills and SDLs, the amount per unit will be based on the indicative price of the security, the accrued interest and a mark-up.
For SGBs, the funding will be based on the Issue Price declared by RBI for that particular issue.
Page Last Updated on: December 10, 2022