Lok Sabha Question No. 44 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-07-18
Subject: Postal Services
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: BANSHILAL MAHTO

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF POSTS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 44 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 th   JULY, 2018

## POSTAL SERVICES

## †44. DR. BANSHILAL MAHATO:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the postal services being run by the Department of Posts presently in the country as well as the details of the revenue earned from these services;
- (b) whether  the  manpower  and  infrastructural  facilities  including  post-masters  and postmen are adequate in the Department of Posts at present;
- (c) if  not,  whether  the  Government  has  any  proposal  to  recruit  more  number  of personnel as well as to set up more number of new post offices in the country;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  details  of  the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  further  improve  the services and efficiency of the Department of Posts in the country?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) The details of the Postal Services and revenue earned from these services are annexed as Annexure-A
- (b)     Yes Madam.  The manpower and infrastructural facilities including Postmasters and  Postmen  are  adequate  in  the  Department  of  Posts  at  present.    However, sometimes  shortage  of  staff  arises  on  account  of  promotion,  deputation,  leave, retirement, death, etc.  Occurrence of vacancies and recruitment to fill those vacancies are  a  continuous  process.    Further,  the  upgradation  of  infrastructure  is  done  by  the Department from time to time as and when needed.
- (c) & (d) Recruitment  to  fill  up  vacant  posts  is  done  periodically  as  per  the provisions  of  the  relevant  recruitment  rules.    11767  vacancies  of  Postal  Assistant  / Sorting Assistant were reported to Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for recommending candidates on the basis of Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination (CHSLE) 2015,  2016  &  2017.    Candidates  recommended  on  the  basis  of  CHSLE  2015  were issued offer of appointment and candidates have joined.  Candidates recommended on the  basis  of  CHSLE  2016  have  been  allocated  to  Postal  Circles  for  appointment. Results of CHSLE 2017 are yet to be declared by SSC.

Further, it is proposed to open 26 Branch Post Offices and Sub Post Offices by relocation and redeployment.  In addition, 253 Branch Post Offices are also proposed to be  opened  in  Left  Wing  Extremism  (LWE)  affected  areas  by  creation  of  new  posts during the year 2018-19

- (e) The following steps have been taken by the Government to further improve the services and efficiency of the Department of Posts. The detailed progress is as follows:
- (i) IT Modernization Project is being undertaken to improve the services and efficiency of  Department of  Posts  with  a  total  outlay  of  Rs  4909  crore.  The  Project  involves computerization and Modernization and networking of ~ 1, 55,000 Post Offices in the country, including ~ 1, 30,000 Branch Post Offices in rural areas run by the Gramin Dak Sevaks.

The  project  involves  providing  Central  Server  based  integrated,  modular  and scalable  solution  for  all  the  operations  of  Department  of  Posts  including  Mails, Human  Resource,  Banking,  Insurance  and  Finance  &  Accounts.  It  also  involves creation of IT Infrastructure like Data Centre, Disaster Recovery Centre, setting up of a Wide Area Network (WAN) and providing solar powered and portable  hand-held computing devices(Micro ATM compliant) to all the Branch Post Offices.

- (ii) Core Banking Solution (CBS) has been implemented in Post Office Savings Bank. This  has  resulted  in  enabling  anywhere  banking,  i.e.  a  Post  Office  Savings  Bank (POSB) Customer can transact with his/her account from any  CBS  Post  Office  in India, irrespective of the facts as to where his/her account stands.

ATMs have been installed and made interoperable, i.e. a POSB customer can use his/her ATM card in ATM of any Bank in addition to that of Postal ATMs. Bank Customers can also use their ATM cards at PO ATMs.

- (iii) For improving the Mail Operations, the following steps have been taken:
-  Computerization, infrastructure and site upgradation of sorting and mail processing offices has been carried out.
-  End to end tracking facility is provided for accountable articles viz. Speed Post, Registered Post,, Parcels etc.
-  Dedicated point to point road transport for fast & secure transmission of Speed Post, Parcels and e-commerce articles has been introduced.
-  Department vehicle have been equipped with Geo Positioning System (GPS) for monitoring on real time basis.
-  Nodal Mechanized delivery Centers for delivery of parcels and Speed Post have been established.
-  Quality  Monitoring  Cells  have  been  established  in  the  circle  to  monitor  mail performance.
-  A separate Parcel Directorate has been established in the Department of Posts to  holistically  manage  the  sales  &  marketing  activities  and  operations  of  the parcel business.

## Annexure-A

## In crore

| Details of the Postal Services                                         |   Financial Year 2015- 16 |   Financial Year 2016- 17 |   Financial Year 2017- 18 up to SY-I |   Financial Year 2018-19 u p to May 2018 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| Speed Post                                                             |                   1605.77 |                   1785.25 |                              1846.62 |                                   215.55 |
| Business Post                                                          |                    735.93 |                    752.52 |                               730.72 |                                    47.72 |
| Express Parcel                                                         |                     58.77 |                     64.18 |                                53.92 |                                     5.54 |
| Business Parcel                                                        |                     90.22 |                     94.8  |                                85.81 |                                    11.75 |
| Bill Mail Service                                                      |                     99.04 |                     77.15 |                                56.07 |                                     6.32 |
| Electronic Post                                                        |                      2.9  |                      1.63 |                                 4.78 |                                     0.41 |
| Postage through Franking Machines and Pre Postage                      |                    830.66 |                    777.34 |                               857.87 |                                   173.38 |
| Sale of Stamps                                                         |                    441.74 |                    470.78 |                               366.77 |                                    34.17 |
| Commemorative stamps                                                   |                     33.25 |                     43.3  |                                61.96 |                                     7.49 |
| My stamps                                                              |                      2.83 |                      5.33 |                                 6.21 |                                     0.17 |
| Philatelic Ancillaries                                                 |                      2.91 |                     13.54 |                                38.19 |                                    25.19 |
| Postage- Other schemes *                                               |                      9.04 |                      8.5  |                                46.21 |                                    42.27 |
| Money Order & Indian Postal Orders                                     |                    464.84 |                    284.62 |                               228.11 |                                    37.83 |
| Retail Post                                                            |                     76.87 |                     67.68 |                               108.59 |                                     6.86 |
| Logistic Post                                                          |                     15.52 |                     16.31 |                                15.41 |                                     1.64 |
| Electronic Bill collection                                             |                     30.79 |                     26.34 |                                22.88 |                                     4.66 |
| Railway ticket booking                                                 |                      3.38 |                      2.54 |                                 2.25 |                                     0.46 |
| Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme                        |                    425.28 |                     48    |                               156.9  |                                     0    |
| Other activities **                                                    |                    446.96 |                    152.57 |                               223.98 |                                   100.96 |
| Net Receipts/Payments to other Postal Administration (Other Countries) |                   -220.78 |                   -267.22 |                              -192.03 |                                   -95.47 |
| Savings Banks & Cash Certificates Remuneration***                      |                   7783.87 |                   7085.84 |                              8102.32 |                                  1365.57 |
| Total                                                                  |                  12939.8  |                  11511    |                             12823.5  |                                  1992.47 |
| Postal Life Insurance (PLI) Remuneration ****                          |                    354.76 |                    394.25 |                               439.04 |                                    58.88 |
| Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) Remuneration ****                   |                    264.9  |                    270.13 |                               277.02 |                                    39.69 |

*Postage-Other schemes includes Greeting Post, Direct Post, National Bill Mail,  Fate rate Parcel, Over Night Parcel, e VPP, e-Commerce Product and International Mails.

- **Other activities includes retail activities such as Sale of forms, Examination/ Recruitment  Fee,  Cable  TV  Registration  Fee,  Fee  from  ATM  interoperable,  Other recoveries from APS, Sale of old records etc.
- ***Savings  Accounts,  Recurring  Deposit  (RD),  Time  Deposit  (TD),  Monthly  Income Scheme  (MIS),  Public  Provident  Fund  (PPF),  National  Savings  Certificate  (NSC), Kisan  Vikas  Patra  (KVP),  Senior  Citizens  Savings  Scheme  (SCSS),  Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts.

****PLI  and  RPLI  remuneration  are  accounted  as  Recoveries  (  i.e.  reduction  of Expenditure)

-  In addition to the above, some other services like (i) Social Security Schemes like Indira  Gandhi  National  Old  Age  Pension  Scheme  (IGNOAPS),  Indira  Gandhi National  Widow  Pension  Scheme  (IGNWPS),  Indira  Gandhi  National  Disability Pension  Scheme  (IGNDPS),  Indira  Gandhi  Matritva  Sahyog  Yojana  (IGMSY), and International Mails Services like Letter, Express Mail Service (EMS) Speed Post, Air Parcel, International Tracked Packets are also provided by Department of Posts.
-  Besides, following new services have also been introduced by the Department:
- (i) Pass Post Seva Kendra
- (ii) Aadhar Seva Kendra -
-  Further,  The  India  Post  Payments  Bank  has  started  operations  in  two  Pilot branches.

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