CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the Postal Department’s decision to supply gold coins through post office. In a letter to PM, the CPI leader said this move of the postal department exposes that Cabinet Ministers P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal were not on the same page on import of gold.
Postal Department has floated tender for the supply of gold coins, while Finance Minister argues for less consumption of gold to save the exchequer from import burden, Reddy pointed out adding the RBI had also issued directives in this regard to avoid heavy burden on the import costs. “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,” said Reddy.