Department of Posts floats tender for sale of domestic gold coins

NEW DELHI: Amidst government taking measures to discourage gold consumption, the Department of Posts has floated a tender for sale of gold coins category through about 1,000 post offices.

"Tenders are invited on behalf of the President of India from the manufacturer/suppliers of gold coins for supplying gold coins of various denominations to the Department of Posts for selling them on sale or return basis on commission through specified post offices," the tender said.

The contract will be valid for two years and the Department can increase or decrease number of post offices considering the commercial viability and demand for the same.

The tender from DoP comes at a time when government has been discouraging sale of imported gold coins and medallions.

When contacted an official of the Ministry of Communications and IT, which governs the DoP, said: "We have floated a tender for gold sale in non-imported category only. The RBI ban is on imported gold sale."

It may be noted that the DoP did not sell gold coins at discounted rates this festive season following a government advisory on curbing sale of the precious metal.

In order to contain high current account deficit, the government had recently hiked import duty on gold to 10 per cent from 8 per cent and also banned imports of gold coins and medallions.

The current account deficit (CAD) touched a historic high of 4.8 per cent of GDP in the last fiscal. The rise in CAD was mainly attributed to high imports of gold and petroleum products.