All India Association of Inspector Posts and Assistant Superintendent Posts, Tamilnadu Circle

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

700% Increase in Post Office Small Savings Schemes

Till November last year, the collection of small savings through post offices stood at Rs 21,041 crore, compared to Rs 2,360 crore till November 2014, according to data available at National Savings Institute.

Add to this the small savings collection by banks (in the forms of public provident fund (PPF), senior citizens' savings scheme and Sukanya Samridhi accounts), and the figure rises to Rs 49,051 crore. The PPF collection data of the previous year is unavailable, making it not possible to compare.

Banks are already pitching for parity in interest rates of small savings, as it is seen as a hindrance in smooth transmission of the impact of earlier interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India.

"There is a huge gap between the small savings and bank interest rate. It is long-pending demand of the banks that there should be some parity between the two,'' said Charan Singh, executive director, UCO Bank.

At present, bank fixed deposit earns between seven and 7.5 per cent interest rate on an average of a five-year tenure. In contrast, the interest rates on small savings hover between 8.4 per cent and 9.2 per cent across different schemes.

Post office small savings collections up 700% Gross post office small savings collection saw nearly a 40 per cent increase in collection between November 2014 and November 2015 to Rs 2,15,803 crore.

The government is also considering a reduction in interest rate on small savings. In December 2015, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government will bring down interest rates on small savings "cautiously".

West Bengal remained the top state in terms of small savings collection, with total net collections a Rs 3,974 crore till November 2015, against Rs 1,381 crore till November 2014, showing a rise of 188 per cent. After West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh accounts for highest collections in small savings at Rs 3120 crore net collections till November 2015, an increase of 185 per cent in November 2014.

Earlier, in view of the dwindling small savings collections, the government had in April 2015 marginally revised rates on small savings interest rates. The interest rate on the Sukanya Samriddhi account was raised from 9.1 per cent to 9.2 per cent a year for 2015-16 and the interest rate on Senior Citizens Savings' Scheme was raised from 9.2 to 9.3 per cent for FY16. Those on other schemes were kept unchanged. Under Sukanya Samriddhi account, which was launched in January 2015, the total collections till November 2015 stood at nearly Rs 283 crore.

400 e-tailers team up with postal department for delivery

NEW DELHI:
More than 400 e-commerce companies are leveraging the extensive reach of the Department of Posts (DoP) in an effort to deliver their consignments at every nook and corner of the country. "The Department has tied up with more than 400 e-commerce agencies, including Flipkart, Amazon, YepMe, Snapdeal and the like for delivering e-commerce pre-paid as well as cash-on-delivery (COD) orders," an internal note of the communications and IT ministry said. DoP has a network of some 1.55 lakh post offices, of which 1.3 lakh are in rural areas. Of all, Amazon is the biggest partner in terms of business with India Posts. As per the note, DoP received Rs 1,150 crore from parcels under the COD category, which is expected to cross the Rs 1,500-crore mark by the end of the current fiscal. "DoP is delivering 40,000 e-commerce parcels per day and the average value of parcels handled by India Post is Rs 5,000 for urban areas and Rs 3,000 for rural areas," the note said

India Post is grappling with e-tail shift: Kavery Banerjee

The department of posts is leaving no stone unturned to ride on the e-commerce boom across the country. From making dedicated corridors for delivery to training postmen to handle big volumes, besides connecting all postal products through technology, the department has chalked a strategy to overcome the shift in their functioning. Secretary of Department of Posts, Kavery Banerjee, tells Mansi Taneja the plan for e-commerce and the payments bank venture. Excerpts:

E-commerce has come as a boon for the postal department. What is the long-term strategy to boost revenues?
We have been focusing on our strategy and how to move forward for the past one year. E- commerce has emerged as a key opportunity. Our revenue and parcel revenues have grown by 120 per cent. We are grappling with a paradigm shift. A fresh look is being given to ways of processing, transmission, and delivery. We have set up 48 dedicated processing centres for handling parcels. The maximum orders are coming from smaller places where aspirations are high - Tier-II and -III cities and small villages such as in Leh and Ladakh and north-eastern regions. India Post is a natural partner for e-commerce companies because of our reach and network. We are looking at 100 per cent year-on-year growth and by March we will generate revenues of Rs 250 crore from parcels and speed post. Through cash-on-delivery, we reached Rs 1,200 crore.

How are you coping up with huge volumes from the e-commerce sector? Do you plan to purchase your own vehicles for a better delivery mechanism?
We are struggling with huge volumes in e-commerce. We are struggling with airlines, that have their own capacity constraints. Planning to set up dedicated routes through roads for delivery. We are also in the process of aggregating delivery centres and booking offices. It will be vehicle-driven. We are exploring how to incentivise postmen to use their vehicles for delivery where possible. In hilly and difficult terrains, the mode has to be on foot. For major areas, we plan to outsource vehicles.

What kind of incentives?
We want to make it more attractive to postmen/delivery agents for using their own vehicles and considering various options. We have set up a committee to look into the compensation of rural officers, mainly who work part-time and plan to restructure accordingly. This happens every time the Pay Commission is announced. The committee's report will be out in sometime, after which we have to look at the financial implications and take finance ministry's approval for it. There have been issues with last-mile delivery. Many e-commerce firms have been complaining about delays in delivery and loss of items. We have put in a place a track-and-trace system. Technology has not reached smaller post offices, which is why it takes time to upload information. We have explained this to all our e-commerce partners about timings in smaller towns and villages. One can't expect a delivery in a village within a day. We have made arrangements to deliver outside office hours and even, on holidays now. Also, we will be connecting all our postal products - letters, parcels and other - through technology, which will enable immediate uploading of information - booking, delivery and timings. Currently, the trials are going on and we plan to roll it out by end of this year. We have also rolled out solar powered handheld devices through which one can send money orders/remittances and also make payments for various government run schemes. The department is looking to roll out 20,000 such devices by end of this month and 130,000 by end of March 2017.

How are you training your existing staff with this change in the functioning of the department? Are you concerned over the age profile?
E-commerce in India has suddenly taken off, in the last two years, while in the West, they moved towards it gradually over 15 years. It has taken us by surprise as well. There are many rounds of training going on for the staff all over the country. Courses are available online as well with a focus on e-commerce. We are working on their skills - how to interact with people. Age profile is shifting, we have inducted a lot of young people recently. Many of them are engineers. For instance, for 800 vacancies in Delhi, we got some 30 lakh applications and most of them were doctors, engineers, paramedics. These people come with a certain background and are comfortable using technology. We are also rotating people in different sections.

What is the update on your Payments Bank venture. Will it be first step towards a full-fledged bank?
We have selected a consultant for this venture. We have to submit the plan to RBI March 2017. We want to leverage our reach and network. Every post office will be a point of access. We also plan to set up white labeled ATMs. We will have various tie-ups for the venture, will mix use of delivery staff to facilitate doorstep banking. Our 2.8 lakh network of small saving agents will also be used. We can also partner with banks to offer credit products. We will launch products which will not be in direct competition to our existing portfolio. Money order might be hived off and make way for remittances through Payments bank riding on technology. It will be much cheaper, we have seen traffic coming down in money orders because it is expensive.We will also look at last mile delivery of payments. We will hire set of professionals for running banking operations of Payments Bank. The plan is to set up a full bank, Payments bank is the first step. Banks consider us to be a serious threat and there is serious resistance against us getting into banking space. Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-post-is-grappling-with-e-tail-shift-kavery-banerjee-116031600041_1.html

Read more at: http://www.palegacyblogspot.in/2016/03/india-post-is-grappling-with-e-tail.html
Courtesy : PA Legacy (http://www.palegacyblogspot.in/)

Saturday, March 12, 2016

ATM opening at Pattukottai HO on 11.3.2016

PMG transfers

Identification of RICT solution trainers

DPC for promotion of PS Group B

Member Tech letter regarding use of Active Directory

Opening of ATM at Manamadurai HO by SPOs, Sivaganga

Issue of revised Recruitment Rules of PS Gr. B Cadre and to reduce share of General Line officials from 6% to 3%…regarding

No. CHQ/AIAIPASP/CRC/2012 Dated : 10/3/2016

To,

Shri S. V. Rao,

Director (DE),

Department of Posts,

Dak Bhavan, Sansad Marg,

New Delhi 110 001.

Subject : Issue of revised Recruitment Rules of PS Gr. B Cadre and to reduce share of General Line officials from 6% to 3%…regarding

Ref. : Dte No. A.34012/01/2015-DE dated 15th January 2015

Respected Sir,

Your kind attention is invited to this Association’s letters of even number dated 15/7/2013, 19/11/2013, 6/1/2014, 17/4/2014, 16/5/2014, 21/6/2014, 29/8/2014, 9/3/2015 and 7/11/2015 on the above captioned subject.

In this regard it is to intimate that this Association has been perusing through above cited letters to conduct LDCE for PS Gr. ‘B’ for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 separately only after revision of Recruitment Rules of PS Gr. B cadre and also reducing share of General Line officials from 6% to 3% in the examination quota.

As per clause 3.1.5 of DoPT OM No. AB-14017/48/2010-Estt (RR) dated 31st December 2010 revision in the Recruitment Rules once in 5 years with a view to effecting such changes as are necessary to bring them in conformity with the changed position, including additions to or reduction in the strength of the lower and higher level posts”. It is learnt that approval from Nodal Ministry/UPSC is awaited for issue of revised recruitment rules of PS Gr. B cadre.

Sir, this vital issue is pending for more than 2 years, and therefore it is requested to bestow your personal attention and conduct the above said pending LDCEs at the earliest and that too separately after reduction of share of General Line officials from 6% to 3% in the examination quota and to avoid further litigation's etc.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

(Vilas Ingale)

General Secretary

Source : CHQ Blog.

Ramp walk for Postman & MTS at Chennai on 11.3.2016

Innovative idea from PMG, CCR, of conducting Ramp walk for Postman & MTS held at Chennai on 11.3.2016. 15 Male & 15 Female Postman & MTS staff selected for final round.