Buoyed by the success in sale of gold coins in the post offices of some states in the country, India Post, the postal services department of the Centre, is mulling to extend the service to other states including Orissa.
India Post has asked the Post Master Generals (PMG) of different regions in the state to identify the feasible locations in their respective postal regions for sale of gold coins.
“We have received a letter from India Post and have also sent our proposal”, Santosh Kumar Kamila, post master general of Berhampur postal region told Business Standard on the sidelines of a customers’ meet, organised by the PMG office in Berhampur on Tuesday.
The Berhampur region has identified six potential locations for sale of gold coins in the head post offices (HPO). These include Berhampur, Chhatrapur in Ganjam district, Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district, Koraput and Jeypore in Koraput district and Rayagada.
“We have sent our proposal, but the decision to sell the yellow metal is yet to be finalised. As Berhampur is a good market for gold transaction, we expect good sales of gold coins from the post offices”, said Kamila. The gold coins are generally sold by India Post only at the HPOs.
Sources said the gold cons would be packed in a sealed cover with certification from Valcambi, a precious metals refining company based in Switzerland.
In the Orissa postal circle, there are 35 HPOs which includes 10 HPOs in the Berhampur postal region, 15 in the Bhubaneswar region and another 10 in the Sambalpur region. At present, gold coins are being sold by India Post in 102 cities of different states in the country including Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The service is being provided by India Post in association with the Gold Council and Reliance Money Limited. Although several public sector banks including the State Bank of India (SBI), Andhra Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Syndicate Bank are selling the gold coins in some of their selective branches in Orissa including Berhampur, the gold coins to be available in HPOs will be different. The customer can get 24 carat gold coins of the smaller denominations like 0.5 gram, one gram, 5 gram and 8 grams from the post offices and gold coins of such smaller denomination may not be available in the nationalised banks.