No gold sale in post offices, Finance Ministry decides

MUMBAI: The finance ministry has cancelled India Post’s tender for sale of gold coins through its post office network across the country.

India Post had sought to sell gold coins at a time when the government is discouraging commercial banks to sell gold coins. The finance ministry has cancelled the tender. “The tender is cancelled,” said finance minister P Chidambaram at a media briefing following the launch of the Mahila Bank on Tuesday.

India imported 850 tonnes of gold valued at about $58 billion. This among other factors caused the current account deficit in the balance of payments to touch historic high of 4.8% of GDP. Gold imports are estimated to have dropped to around 800 tonnes so far this year.

The government has sought to contain gold imports by hiking import duty from 10% to 8%. It also banned imports of gold coins and medallions. In August, the finance ministry had also banned banks from selling gold coins.

India Post had, however, clarified that it had floated the tender for sale of non-imported gold coins and not imported gold coins. The matter took a political turn with members of the opposition parties seeking clarification on government’s stand in this matter.