The Hindu Business Line : Post offices to sell gold coins, in tie-up with Reliance Money, WGC

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Post offices to sell gold coins, in tie-up with Reliance Money, WGC

Ramesh Sharma

Postal gold: The Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr A. Raja (left), and the Minister of State, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, in the Capital on Wednesday at the launch of a set of 24k gold coins to be sold in over 100 India Post outlets in association with World Gold Council and Reliance Money. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct 15 The ubiquitous post offices would now start selling gold coins. India Post, Reliance Money and World Gold Council (WGC) on Wednesday announced a strategic tie-up under which gold coins would be sold in little over 100 India Post outlets in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the pilot phase.

WGC would help market the Swiss medallions supplied by Reliance Money, making it available to Indian mass consumers through India Post offices. The gold coins will be of 0.5g, 1g, 5g and 8g denominations.

Launching the service, the Union Communication and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, said that post offices would sell gold coins with India Post logo during the second phase of the project.

He also urged India Post and Reliance Money to work together to take this service to semi-urban and rural India at the earliest by leveraging the 1.55 lakh post offices covering the urban and rural populace.

Right time

Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of State for Communications and IT, said that the “timing was apt” for the launch of such a service, especially when there was turmoil across world financial markets.

It is being felt that the meltdown in financial markets would lead to surge in investments in gold.

Mr Scindia highlighted that households had always coveted buying of gold, storing of gold and transferring of gold from one generation to another, Reliance Money CEO, Mr Sudip Bandyopadhyay, said that retailing gold through India Post was a ground-breaking initiative and one-of-its-kind in the world.

WGC Managing Director Mr Ajay Mitra said that he expects the turnover from gold coin sales through post offices to touch Rs 300-500 crore in six months provided there was a smooth rollout.