Year End Review of Department of Posts

Extracts from PIB Release dated 26th December, 2012

Contributing to the financial inclusion of the rural people:

(A)       Wage disbursal under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA):Extensive rural postal network of the country is actively engaged in disbursal of wages of MGNREGA with high levels of efficiency. During the year 2012-13 the Post Offices disbursed about Rs 9,133 crore by October, 2012 through about 5.53 crore savings accounts of MGNREGA workers standing in the Post Offices. Thus, the Department of Posts significantly contributed towards the success of this unique social security arrangement of unprecedented scale.

(B)       Financial Inclusion of Below Poverty Line (BPL Household: Department of Posts leveraged its network and outreach to financially include BPL households by targeting them for opening their savings accounts in the Post Offices and thus providing them with access to savings services. During the Year 2012-13 more than 1.53 crore households were financially included through this initiative by October, 2012.

            Introduction of e-enabled services

(A) 24,969 Departmental post offices have been computerized as on date

(B) India Post has introduced Remotely Managed Franking System in place of existing electronic Franking Machines. Around 5681 RMFS machines have been licensed and activated as on date.

(C) e-Post office Portal was commissioned during 2011. During the current year PLI premia payment has also been added apart from sale of philatelic material. 

            International Remittance services

            Recognizing the spurt in the volumes of international remittances into India in the recent years and the notable contribution of remittance inflows to the country’s economy, the Department of Posts has taken a project to revamp its international money order services. Currently, DoP provides electronic money remittance services on two platforms, viz. the IFS (developed by the Universal Postal Union) and Eurogiro. The following action has been completed in this regard:

1.                  Setting up an International Remittances Unit (IRU) at CEPT, Mysore.

2.                  Starting the inward international money order transactions from France on 22 November, 2012.

 Expansion of Clientele Base of Postal Life Insurance(PLI) 

In order to provide insurance coverage to persons of various organizations which were earlier out of purview of PLI schemes and to scale up business revenues employees of following organizations have also been brought under PLI scheme w.e.f. 18.10.2012:

(i)            Joint ventures having Govt/PSU stake

(ii)          Credit Co-operative Societies registered under Co-operative Societies Act

(iii)         Scheduled Commercial Banks

(iv)         Deemed Universities and Educational Institutions accredited by recognized bodies i.e. AICTE, MCI, NAAC etc.

“Sampoorna Jeevan Bima Gram” and “Sampoona Bima Sangathan”

            For better insurance coverage of eligible population, a targeted approach to cover villagers under RPLI and organizations under PLI has been started from November 2012 as under:-

(i)            to identify and cover minimum 75% of employees of 20 organizations up to 31.10.2012 and 30 organisations/units up to 31.10.2012 as “Sampoorna Jeevan Bima Sangthan/Unit” under Postal Life Insurance;

(ii)          To identify and cover 1000 villages up to 31.10.2012 and 2000 villages up to 31.03.2013, as “Sampoorna Jeevan Bima Gram” wherein at least one member of each house hold is to be enrolled under Rural Postal Life Insurance.

Financial Services

           

The Department successfully completed the vendor selection for its Financial System Integration project. The vendor selected was M/s Infosys who will be involved with the Core Banking solution and setting up of ATMs for the Department. The project has started on 28^th September 2012. 

            UIDAI Aadhar letters: 

Department of Posts is working as Register with UIDAI for providing Aadhar enrolments through Post Offices for phase-II operations also. A total of 80,84, 181 successful enrolments have been completed.

 ePost: 

New and enhanced version of ePost software has been launched on 12^th December 2012. The enhanced version will have facility of sending multilingual messages apart from sending PDF files as attachment. During the year 2012 (upto Nov 2012), 13.64 lakh messages have been sent and Rs 104.50 lakhs earned as revenue. 

            Sale of Gold Coins: 

Under retail post, India Post sells 24 carat gold coins of the denomination of 0.5 g, 1g, 5g, 8g, 10g, 20g and 50g through selected Post Offices. During the year 2012 (upto Nov 2012), 708 kg of gold coins were sold  and Rs 10.99 crores earned as revenue. 

            Project Management Unit

            The Government has approved the IT Modernization Project of the Department of Posts for computerization of all the non-computerized post offices, Mail Offices, Administrative and other offices, establishment of required IT infrastructure, development of required software applications. IT modernization Project – India Post will enable Department to enhance and provide value additions to Mail, Savings Bank and Insurance, customer service while providing a platform to launch new initiatives and provide new rural services. 

Money remittance through Mobile phone service: 

            An agreement has been signed with BSNL for providing money remittance through mobile phones. This is joint endeavor of Department of Posts & BSNL. BSNL has been provided with the requirements of DOP for development of the software. This service specially tailored for those who have a need to remit money regularly up to a sum of Rs 10,000. Under the Scheme, a remitter can go to any Post Office in the Circle enabled for the Mobile Money Transfer Service and remit an amount from Rs 1000/- to Rs 10,000/- to be paid to another mobile subscriber at the designated Post Office. The Slabs for money transfer is as follows:

Slabs	Charges of Remittance
Rs 1000 to 1500	Rs 40
Rs 1501 to 5000	Rs 70
Rs 5001 to 10,000	Rs 100

            The service initially has been launched on 15^th November 2012 in four Circles viz. Kerala, Bihar, Delhi and Punjab and this service is provided in 18 selected Post Offices in each Circle.