Government removes SPMCIL chief Anurag Agarwal

Kolkata: The government has removed Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd chairman and managing director Anurag Agarwal barely into three months of his taking charge and asked S Selvakumar, joint secretary at Department of Economic Affairs to head the state-run corporation as additional charge.

An office order from SPMCIL says the appointment takes effect from Tuesday, January 16.

ET has a copy of the order.


Agarwal had taken the contentious decision to halt production of coins last week which was unceremoniously revoked barely within a couple of days after workers sought finance minister's intervention in the matter.

The flow of event has raised speculation that the decision to remove Agarwal may be because of the decision to stop minting coins.
However, it can't be verified independently and the decision could have completely been a routine one.

An IIT Kanpur alumnus, Agarwal joined as joint secretary at Department of Economic Affairs, in September last year and has been entrusted with the additional charge of CMD of SPMCIL on October 5. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1990, a year before liberalisation of Indian economy.

SPMCIL, which enjoys the Miniratna status, produces bank notes, coins, postage stamps, non-judicial stamps and other official documents.


It runs four coin minting units in Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Noida. Agarwal's stoppage decision had been precipitated by the Reserve Bank of India slowing down coin pickup from the mints because its vaults are full of demonetised currency.