DEPARTMENT OF POSTS TO SEEK CABINET NOD FOR RS 1,900 CRORE FUNDS

NEW DELHI: Department of Posts has started inter-ministerial consultations for seeking Cabinet approval on around Rs 1,900 crore fund requirement to start Post Banks in the country. 

"DoP will need around Rs 1,900 crore to start Post Banks in the country. This includes Rs 500 crore paid-up capital required under new banking licence guidelines and rest is for other capital adequacy norms that Post Banks will need to fulfil. Cabinet note has gone to various ministries to seek their views," a government official told PTI. 

The Department of Posts (DoP) has plans to apply for banking licence to offer full-fledged banking services along with postal services through post offices. 

The RBI has issued comprehensive guidelines for new bank licences. It has fixed July 1 as the last date for filing application by interested entities. 

The DoP has proposed to start 50 bank branches in the first year and scale it to a total of 150 branched in 5 years. 

There are around 90,000 bank branches in the country and provision of real-time banking services through postal network is estimated to triple the current banking network. 

Finance Minister P Chidambaram in this year's Budget speech said Post offices will become part of the core banking solution ( CBS) and offer real time banking services. He proposed provision of Rs 532 crore for the project in 2013-14. 

The Post Banks are proposed to be owned by DoP but with a completely independent board, governance structure and operations. It will have representation from Ministries of Finance and Communication & IT. 

"The branches in first phase will be opened in tier 1 to even very small cities with foucs on rural and retail micro, small and medium enterprises," the official said. 

India postal network has 1,54,822 post offices in the country. Of these, 1,39,086 are in rural areas and 15,736 are in urban regions.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

DEPARTMENT OF POSTS TO MOVE CABINET NOTE TO APPLY FOR BANK LICENCE

MUMBAI: The Department of Posts will move a Cabinet note in order to apply for a banking license by the stipulated deadline of July 1, asenior official has said, even as a top Finance Ministry went public with doubts over the efficacy of the post office being converted into a bank. 

"We are moving a cabinet note now and after that we will be applying for the licence. After the cabinet note, we will go ahead with setting up the bank," Postal Services Board's member, planning, Suneeta Trivedi, told PTI here. 

Trivedi asserted that the Department will be making the application by July 1, which is the last date set by the Reserve Bank for receiving applications.

The department of Posts has engaged consultancy firm Ernst & Young for helping it at the application stage by creating the "whole concept" of the bank and has already gathered all the know-how to enter the fray. 

However, Department of Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru seemed to be not so much interested at the prospect of India Posts entering the banking fray. 

There is a lot more to banking than merely having the reach and opening savingsaccounts, he told reporters, adding that it also involves very complex things at the back end and seemed to suggest that a Japan-like case, where the postal department has a bank, may not work in the country. 

When asked about the same, Trivdei said, "We have worked out all on the know how, about everything. There is nothing like that" and added that there is no rethink on the part of the Postal department. 

Sector watchers suggest that if financial inclusion is the ultimate aim in granting new licences in this round, the entry of the department will be highly beneficial to the agenda being pursued by the Reserve Bank and the Government.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Direct Benefit transfer - Gas Subsidy to be effective from 1.7.2013 Palakkad District

 പോസ്റ്റ്‌ഓഫീസ് ID നമ്പർ അറിയുവാൻ താഴെ 

കാണിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന LINK -ൽ CLICK ചെയ്യുക

 IFS code of post office

Central govt employees’ retirement age to be extended by 2 years to 62 - Financial Express

The government is planning to extend the retirement age of all central government employees by two years — from the current 60 to 62 years. Sources said that an in-principle decision has been taken in this regard and the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has begun the work to implement the same. A formal announcement to this effect is expected this year itself.

The last time the government extended the retirement age of central government employees was in 1998. It was also a two-year extension from 58. This was preceded by the implementation of the 5th Pay Commission, which had put severe strain on government’s finances. Subsequently, all state governments followed the Centre’s policy by extending the retirement age by two years. Public sector undertakings followed suit too.

The decision to extend the retirement age is well-timed both politically and economically.

The UPA government reckons the move would be a masterstroke. At a time when it is buffeted by several corruption cases, it is felt that the extension of the retirement age will go down well with the middle classes. Economically also, the move makes sense because by deferring payment of lump sum retirement benefits for a large number of employees by two years, the government would be able to manage its finances better.

“An in-principle decision has been taken to increase the retirement age by two years within this year itself. This would reduce the burden on the fisc from one-time payment of retirement benefits for employees including defence and railways personnel,” an official involved in the discussion said. With the fiscal consolidation high on the government's agenda, this deferment would come handy.

There’s some flip side too if the retirement age is extended by two years. Those officials empanelled as secretaries and joint secretaries would have to wait longer to actually get the posts. And of course, there is the issue of average age profile of the civil servants being turning north.

It is also felt that any extension is not being fair with a bulk of people who still look for jobs in the government.

However, officials point out that at least it prevents an influential section of the bureaucracy to hanker for post-retirement jobs with the government like chairmanship of regulatory bodies or tribunals.

“As it is, a sizeable section of senior civil servants work for three to five years after the retirement in some capacity or the other in the government,” said a senior government official. The retirement age of college teachers and judges are also beyond 60.

As per a study, the future pension outgo for the existing Central and State government employees is estimated at a staggering Rs 1,735,527 crore or 55.88% of GDP at market prices of 2004-05.

Source: www.financialexpress.com

[http://www.financialexpress.com/news/central-govt-employees-retirement-age-to-be-extended-by-2-years-to-62/784342]

BANGALORE, INDIA: When you hear 'ATM', what is the first thing that you relate to it? I am sure, many of us, including me, relate it to savings bank ATM card.

How about an ATM card similar to a debit card/ATM card issued by a bank for postal account? Sounds different right?

Yes, the Department of Posts, in an effort to provide enhanced solutions to its customers is all set to launch the first Automated teller Machine (ATM) in Bangalore GPO premises shortly, through a core banking solution.

Last year, the department of post had announced that it has plans to set up 1,000 ATM centres at different post offices across the country, with an aim provide better customer service through IT enablement of business processes and support functions.

Implementing new banking solution enables postal department to offer all kinds of services that are offered by private banks to more than 200 million post office saving bank (POSB) account holders in 1.55 lakh post offices.

When CIOL enquired about the launch of India's first India Post ATM, an official concerned with the Bangalore post office said, on condition of anonymity, that the ATM facility will be launch shortly with good features.

He further added that the postal ATM card enables POSB account holders to withdraw money from any bank ATM, provided they have enough savings.

"POSB account holder need not rely only on Post Office ATMs," he added.
Recently, TCS announced that it had bagged a Rs 1,100 crore, six-year contract from the Department of Posts to provide end-to-end IT modernisation program to equip India Post with modern technologies and systems to enable it to serve more services to more customers, in an effective manner.


The IT modernisation project dubbed 'India Post 2012' will help the department achieve a wider reach among the Indian population through increased customer interaction channels and through new lines of business.

Source : http://www.ciol.com/ciol/news/189381/india-post-set-atm-bangalore