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:
- Setting up an International Remittances Unit (IRU) at CEPT, Mysore.
- 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
28th 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 12th
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 15th November 2012 in four Circles viz. Kerala, Bihar,
Delhi and Punjab and this service is provided in 18 selected Post Offices in
each Circle.
