Lok Sabha Question No. 2004 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-09
Subject: Losses of Postal Department
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: MAUSAM NOOR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF POSTS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2004 TO BE ANSWERED ON 9 TH  MARCH,  2016

## LOSSES OF POSTAL DEPARTMENT

2004. SHRIMATI MAUSAM NOOR:

Will  the  Minister  of  COMMUNICATIONS  AND  INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: (a) whether postal department is running into huge losses; (b) if  so,  the details of the revenue generated and expenditure incurred during the last three years and the current year, year-wise; (c) whether the department is using outdated equipment and technology; (d) if  so, the details thereof and the initiative taken to avail newer technologies and modern equipments to improve services and prevent losses; and whether the Government proposes to install volumetric measurement system in

- (e) selected post centres and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) No, Madam, the Postal Department is running in deficit with budgetary support.
- (b) The Revenue and Expenditure incurred during last three years and current year are as under-

## (Amount in Crores)

| Year                   |   Revenue Realised |   Net Expenditure incurred |
|------------------------|--------------------|----------------------------|
| 2012-13                |             9366.5 |                    14792.4 |
| 2013-14                |            10730.4 |                    16203.5 |
| 2014-15                |            11636   |                    17894.6 |
| 2015-16 (up to Jan 16) |            10286.9 |                    15663   |

(c) No, Madam.

Contd……..2/-

(d) Under the IT modernization Project of the Department, which is currently under implementation,  more  than  97%  of  the  Departmental  Post  Offices,  mail  offices  and administrative  offices  (27895  out  of  about  28800)  have  been  networked  into  a  Wide Area Network (WAN) with the Data Centre Facility at Mumbai, Core Banking Solution for 'Anytime Anywhere Banking' has been rolled out in 18570 Post Offices, 620 ATMs have been installed, Core Insurance Solution has been rolled out in 25406 Post Offices and Solar powered Biometric Hand held devices (Micro ATMs) with wireless connectivity are being supplied to rural Branch Post Offices.

In  order  to  modernize  its  mail  network,  the  Department  makes  full  use  of Information Technology and offers online Track and Trace for Speed Post, Registered mail and Parcels; delivery confirmation is updated to the customer through SMS. Online Key  Performance  Indicators  (KPIs)  are  used  for  monitoring and  evaluating the performance of Speed Post, Registered mail and Parcels on a Pan-India basis.

In order to meet the requirements of the booming e-Commerce parcel business, the  Department has set up and augmented parcel processing facilities at 48 centres. The centres have been computerized and, based on traffic and volumes, technological support  such  as  conveyor  belts,    fork  lifts,  roller  containers,  packaging,  scanning  etc have  been  provided.    The  major  centers  are  also  equipped  with  CCTV  cameras  for surveillance.

The  Departmental  Mail  Vans  have  been  equipped  with  Global  Positioning System (GPS) for better fleet management and security of mail and parcels.

Mechanized delivery of Speed Post and parcels has been introduced in several cities along with holiday and beyond office hours delivery.

State-of-the-art Automated Mail Processing Centres (AMPCs) have been set up in Delhi and Kolkata. These centres have the capacity to process about 1 million mail pieces and small packets per day.

As  a  result  of  the  constant  focus  on  the  improving  the  quality  of  services  and introducing new products and services, the Department has been able to continuously increase its revenues. The e-Commerce business has seen a quantum growth of 45% in 2014-15 and 102% in the current financial year (up to 31 st Jan 2016); Speed Post has seen a growth of more than 12% in the current Financial Year (up to 31 st Jan 2016).

In  Post  Office  Savings  Bank,  the  Department  has  opened  more  than  80  Lakh Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana accounts and sold more than 2.03 Crore Kisan Vikas Patras (KVP), since the launch of these two schemes, besides increasing the number of POSB accounts to 34.24 Crores. The Department is also enrolling POSB customers under PM Jeewan Jyoti and PM Jeewan Suraksha Yojanas as well as Atal Pension Yojana; more than 1.74 Lakh such policies sold so far.

The  Department  is  also  providing  several  other  services  such  as  payment  of MNREGS  wages  and  social  security  pension  through  POSB  accounts,  booking  of railway tickets, providing State Government services such as MeeSewa & Sunayasan in Andhra Pradesh and Lok Mitra services in Rajasthan, sale of gold bonds etc.

All the above mentioned initiatives have led to the continuous growth in revenues of the Department.

- (e) Provision  already  exists  in  the  Department  to  charge  the  postal  articles  taking into consideration their volumetric weight. Based on traffic and availability of the funds volumetric  measurement  system  are  being  installed  in  phased  manner  at  selected centres.

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