Postal Payment Banks to function from March, 2017

22 May, Hyderabad

Postal Payment Banks would function in the country from March 2017, Union Minister for Communication and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad announced here Sunday.

After participating in the All India Chief Post Master General of India annual conference, Mr Prasad said that a feather in the department’s cap was the enormous growth of e-commerce and trade in recent months.

The Postal Department has a wide network with 1,54,939 Post Offices in the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, in which were 25,516 Departmental and 1,29,339 branch post offices .

The NDA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to rejuvenate Post Offices in the country .

About 50 companies including those from abroad like World Bank, City Bank of America, had shown interest to partner with the Postal Payment Bank, which was a big platform of Financial Inclusion.

Explaining the Postal Department’s achievements, Mr Ravi Shankar said that in eCommerce parcel segment, the Postal Department has also registered an overall growth for more than 81 per cent during 2015-16 as compared to 45 per cent last year. It was down by 2 per cent during 2013-14.

In Speed Post, the revenue growth was 8 per cent and CAG declared Speed Post as the best courier in the country.

He said when he became Minister the postal ATMs were only 4 now the ATM number was 913. The bank has Core Banking facility for only 230 in 2014, now the number was 21,064.

About 1.30 lakh hand devices would be given to rural Post Offices next year to handle insurance, Banking, delivery among other services. The hand devices already introduced under pilot basis in six states including Rajasthan, Orissa were under trial basis.