CPI today sought the Prime Minister's intervention in stopping the sale of gold coins from post offices, saying it went against the Finance Ministry's directive to restrict the sale and import of gold. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party
General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said that "high gold imports and specifically the import of gold coins has surely led to a burden on our import bill" and referred to Finance Minister P Chidambaram's statement on ban on imports of gold coins and medallions.
"Despite the above ban, I am surprised to see that while the Finance Minister holds a specific view on the import of gold coins, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology holds a divergent view on the same.
"The Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communications has floated a tender for 'supply of gold coins on sale' which concludes on November 27, 2013," Reddy said.
He quoted Chidambaram also saying that "banks have been told to strictly follow guidelines on gold imports."
However, the decision of Ministry of Communications and IT went against the decision of the Finance Ministry, he said.
"If banks selling gold coins are strictly being discouraged, how could post offices selling gold coins be encouraged?"
He said the import of gold coins and floating of tender by the postal department "implies encouraging important of gold coins once again."
"With a heavy import bill burden already on the economy, why is the government not having an uniform view regarding the sale of gold coins," Reddy asked and sought the Prime Minister's intervention in the matter.