COMING SOON: ATMS, INTERNET BANKING AT POST OFFICES
There is a good news for around 200 million post
office saving bank (POSB) account holders.
The Department of Posts
(DOP) has launched a project to provide account holders with ATM facility.
Under the project, all post offices throughout the country will be connected
through an IT network.
“We will connect the network of 1.55 lakh post offices that
includes 1.2 lakh in rural areas,” said Kavery Banerjee, member, technology,
postal services board. “Our central data centre is ready and vendors are
developing customised banking service solutions.”
POSB operates small savings schemes on behalf of the
ministry of finance and has over 260 million account holders, out of which
about 200 million are saving and recurring deposit account holders. Total
outstanding balance under all accounts in the POSB stood at around Rs.3,96,664
crore as on March 2012.
At present, an account holder has to go to a post office
during office hours to withdraw money. Moreover, there is no facility of
electronic transfer of money to a third-party account.
“Once customers are provided with the ATM facility, they
will be able to withdraw money from any ATM, including that provided by banks,”
said Banerjee.
Customers will, however, have to wait for more than a year
to avail the ATM facility. POSB will start implementing core banking solution
in limited number of post offices by the end of this year. Next year, it will
be implemented in large number of post offices once the system is perfect.
For rural post offices, the department
will provide handheld devices that will enable one to perform all banking
operations.
DBT FUNDS IN POST OFFICES SOON
Racing against time to make the ambitious Direct Benefits
Transfer (DBT) visibly effective before the 2014 general elections, the
government will bring money transaction through post offices under the DBT
ambit. This desperate move is aimed as a remedy to banks opening accounts of
DBT beneficiaries at snail’s pace.
Ahead of the Prime Minister’s review meeting with key
ministers, the government announced that post offices will also be included
from October 1 while three pension schemes — for old age persons, widows and
the disabled — would now be covered under DBT from July 1. The list would also
include districts where the beneficiaries’ biometrics were collected under the
National Population Register (NPR). They include Odisha, West Bengal, UP,
Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
Several complaints had poured in after the scheme was
launched from January 1 about the problems of the banks to open zero-balance
accounts of the beneficiaries, especially in rural areas.
The government also targets to expand the DBT to cover 78
more districts in the next phase of the DBT rollout which will begin from July
1.
To plug the loopholes, PM’s focus will be on digitisation
of databases and opening of more bank accounts. “There will be a thrust on
digitisation of data of beneficiaries in all districts, irrespective of the
rollout of DBT as this is a critical activity which need not wait and can be
done in parallel,” said a press release.
“The
department of financial services will be asked to ensure coverage of all
beneficiaries with bank accounts. It will ensure that all Micro-ATMs that are
procured will have specifications such that they are inter-operable and are
Aadhaar enabled,” the release added.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, 06.04.2013
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