Revision of Interest Rates for Small Saving Schemes
To view MoF OM dated 18th March 2016, please CLICK HERE.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
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.
Monday, March 14, 2016
Shri Adarsh Mishra - IPS
(Postal Services ) S/o our Secretary General Shri Shivakant Mishra attended
introduction ceremony with Hon'ble President of India in
Rastrapati Bhawan dated 9-3-2016. Standing in Middle of last row bearing
Goggle. lot of congratulation to him and all
probationers for bright future .
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Department of Post (Gujarat Circle) Recruitment for 1242 Postman and Mailguard post 2016
Written By Admin on March 12, 2016 | Saturday, March 12, 2016
Department of Post (Gujarat Circle) has published a Advertisement for below mentioned Posts 2016. Other details like age limit, educational qualification, selection process, application fee and how to apply are given below.
Notification No.: R&E/2-9/DR/2015-16
Posts :
1. Postman – 1220
2. Mail Guard in RMS – 22
Total No. of Posts : 1242 Posts
Educational Qualification :
(1) For Postman : Matriculation from recognized Board/University
(2) For Mail Guard: Matriculation from recognized Board/University.
Age Limit : 18 to 27 years for unreserved (UR) applicants as on 11-04-2016. Relaxation as per rules.
Scale of Pay: Postman: Rs. 5200-20200 & Grade pay: Rs. 2000/- + Admissible allowances. | Mail Guard:Rs. 5200-20200 & Grade pay: Rs. 2000/- + Admissible allowances.
Advertisement : Click Here
Notification : Click Here
Apply Online : Click Here
Important Dates :
Notification No.: R&E/2-9/DR/2015-16
Posts :
1. Postman – 1220
2. Mail Guard in RMS – 22
Total No. of Posts : 1242 Posts
Educational Qualification :
(1) For Postman : Matriculation from recognized Board/University
(2) For Mail Guard: Matriculation from recognized Board/University.
Age Limit : 18 to 27 years for unreserved (UR) applicants as on 11-04-2016. Relaxation as per rules.
Scale of Pay: Postman: Rs. 5200-20200 & Grade pay: Rs. 2000/- + Admissible allowances. | Mail Guard:Rs. 5200-20200 & Grade pay: Rs. 2000/- + Admissible allowances.
Application Fees:
Candidates belonging to Un-reserved (UR) and OBC: Rs. 100/- (Application Fee) + Rs. 400/- (Examination Fee)
Candidates belonging to SC/ST/PH/ Female: Rs. 100/- (Application Fee - On.l)
Pattern & Syllabus of examination:
- The applicants shall be subjected to an aptitude Test (Multiple Choice Questions) with total 100 marks covering the following subjects/topics. Aptitude test will be comprising 4 parts (part A, B,C(i) & C (ii).
- The duration of the aptitude test will be for 2 hours (120 minutes). There is no negative marking.
- The part A and B of the aptitude test will be in bilingual i.e. English & Gujarati.
Qualifying Marks: The qualifying marks in each part and aggregate is as under:
Selection Proceed:
- The selection will purely on merit basis which will be prepared on the basis of marks obtained in the Aptitude test separately for each category following the prescribed rule procedure on the subject.
- If two or more candidates secure equal marks in Aptitude test and they are standing in the last position in the merit list than it is clearly stated that the candidate senior in age will be considered for selection.
- If two or more candidates secure equal marks in aptitude test and they are standing in the last position in the merit list and their age are also the same, then candidate who secured higher percentage in the matriculation will be considered for selection.
Centre of Aptitude Test/Examination: (i) Ahmedabad (ii) Rajkot & (iii) Vadodara cities of Gujarat.
How to Apply : Interested Candidates may Apply Online Through official Website www.gujpostexam.com.
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Notification : Click Here
Apply Online : Click Here
Important Dates :
- Starting Date of Online Application : 12-03-2016
- Date of Start of Deposition of Fee at e- payment Post Offices (Office Hours): 12-03-2016
- Last Date to Apply Online : 11-04-2016
- Date of Last of Deposition of Fee at e- payment Post Offices (Office Hours): 11-04-2016
7th Pay Commission expressed its regret about transition from OPS to NPS
7th Pay Commission expressed its regret about transition from Old Pension Scheme to New Pension Scheme in its report.
2004-2011 Entrants : Government employees who have joined service between 2004 and 2011 have suffered due to delay in finalizing the structure of the NPS and the issue of detailed instructions. Although they have made regular contributions, in many cases, this money and/or counterpart contributions were not deployed in the market. In the case of AIS officers, some states are yet to release counterpart contributions or pay interest on delayed contributions. This has led to a situation where the accumulated corpus even after 11 years of service could be meagre. It is necessary that this situation which arose during the transition from OPS to NPS be addressed.
The Commission therefore recommends that Central Governments and State Governments should, in a time bound manner, ensure that all the due contribution along with compounded interest, where contributions have been delayed, be deposited in the accounts of the beneficiaries. Advisories should be issued to the State Governments to deposit amounts, if not already done, in respect of NPS beneficiaries belonging to All India Services.
Many Association have pointed out that unlike the facility under GPF, it is not possible to make withdrawals under NPS, even to meet obligatory social expenditure. This forces employees towards increased indebtedness as they have to borrow from elsewhere.
The Commission notes that under the NPS Tier-I account, a subscriber is permitted to make partial withdrawal of twenty five percent of the contributions made to his/her individual pension account for certain specified purposes. Such withdrawals are permitted a maximum of three times during the entire tenure of subscription and a period of at least five years should have elapsed between two such withdrawals.
The Commission further notes that there exists a voluntary Tier-II account. Under this account, a subscriber can, at any time, withdraw the accumulated wealth either in full or part and there is no limit on such withdrawals provided the account has sufficient balance of accumulated pension wealth to cover the amount being withdrawn. However, the Tier-II account is yet to be made operational. The Commission therefore recommends that PFRDA should take steps to make the Tier-II accounts operational as early as possible to enable the NPS subscribers the facility of withdrawals from their accounts in case of requirement.
Transparency under NPS : Many associations and individuals have complained that the information relating to the NPS is inadequate, resulting in high degree of uncertainty in the minds of contributors about post-retirement benefits. The Commission noted that PFRDA sends a communication to every participant each month with the current pension wealth and the latest contribution that has been credited. The Commission recommends that focused efforts be made to capture email addresses and mobile numbers of subscribers so that seamless communication is ensured for all subscribers. The Commission recommends that consultation with stakeholders should also be held periodically in different parts of the country.
The Commission notes that no department of Government of India is taking ownership of the NPS. The Commission recommends that a Committee consisting of Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Secretary, Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare and Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances may be constituted to review the progress of implementation of NPS. The Commission also recommends that steps should be taken for establishment of an Ombudsman for redressing individual grievances relating to NPS.
Tax Treatment under the NPS : NPS is under the Exempt–Exempt – Tax (EET) regime while the General Provident Fund under the OPS is under Exempt–Exempt–Exempt (EEE) dispensation. Under the NPS, while the contributions and the accumulations are tax-exempt, withdrawals are taxable. As such, this is an inferior tax treatment when compared to other pension programmes such as General Provident Fund, Contributory Provident Fund, Employees Provident Fund and Public Provident Fund wherein contributions, accumulations and withdrawals are tax-exempt.
The Commission feels that tax neutrality should be ensured across various avenues for long term savings for post retirement incomes so that the employees covered by NPS are not at a disadvantage. The Commission therefore recommends that withdrawals under the NPS should be tax-exempt to place NPS at par with other pension schemes. The Commission also recommends that the service tax levied at the time of annuity purchase by NPS subscribers should be exempted.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
IMPORTANT NEWS
No.06-04/2015-SR
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & IT
Department of Posts
(S.R. Division)
Dak Bhavan, Sansad Marg
New Delhi, dated the 09th March, 2016
Subject: Notice for meeting with Secretary Generals of NFPE, FNPO and BPEF to discuss the issues relating to the 7th CPC.
It has been decided to convene a meeting with the Secretary Generals of the three Federations on 31.03.2016 at 11:00 AM in G.P. Roy Committee Room, Dak, Bhavan, New Delhi under the Chair of Secretary (Posts) to discuss the issues relating to 7th CPC.
Kindly make it convenient to attend. The meeting will be followed by lunch.
(Arun Malik)
Consultant (SR & Legal)
Official Side:
1. All Members of Postal Services Board
2. DDG (P), DDG (Estt.), DDG (SR & Legal)
Staff Side:
Secretary Generals, NFPE, FNPO & BPEF
Copy for information to:
1. Sr. PPS to Secretary (Posts)
Copy also to:
(i) ADG (GA) – for booking the G.P. Roy Committee Room and arrangements of Tea/Coffee/Snacks and Lunch, through CPLO. Exact number of persons and Menu etc. will be intimated later.
(ii) Caretaker – To ensure cleanliness of Committee Room and arrange flower vase etc.
(iii) A.E. (Elect) – for ensuring functioning of mikes etc.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Bank customers can use post-office ATMs soon
New Delhi March 4, 2016
India Post will send a proposal to RBI for its ATMs to work on the platforms of all other banks
Soon people will be able to withdraw money from any bank account - private or PSU - through ATMs of India Post, as it takes the first step towards the proposed Postal Bank in the next few years.
Currently, people with accounts in postal department can use the services of the ATM.
India Post, which has already received a license for starting a Payments Bank, will send a proposal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for allowing ATMs of India Post to work on the platforms of all other banks. "We will soon send a proposal for interoperability of its ATMs with other banks. This would mean technology upgradation in our existing ATMs," according to a senior official from the department.
India Post, which has already received a license for starting a Payments Bank, will send a proposal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for allowing ATMs of India Post to work on the platforms of all other banks. "We will soon send a proposal for interoperability of its ATMs with other banks. This would mean technology upgradation in our existing ATMs," according to a senior official from the department.
The minister for communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has been taking keen interest in the revival of India Post through various measures. Currently, about 600 ATMs have been installed across the country and target is to take this number to 1000 by March this year and 10,000 in the next couple of years. Also, another 20,000 micro ATMs will be set up in the same period.
"This will promote banking in the rural areas. The plan is to have one ATM each in all the 1.55 lakh post offices, out of which 1.3 are in the rural areas, across the country," the official said.
Public Investment Board has already approved Rs 800 crore proposal from India Post for setting up a payments bank and is now in the process of finalising a consultant for the same. It is expected to start operations by March 2017. Subsequently, the plan is to convert into a full-fledged bank.
In the Budget 2016-17, the government has already announced a massive rollout of ATMs and micro ATMs in post offices over the next three years to provide better access to financial services in rural areas.
As on February, India Post has issued 126,181 ATM-cum-debit cards to its account holders.
Also, about 25,000 post offices have been brought under core banking system, which will allow users to operate their accounts from any post office. As of now, people have to visit their respective post office branch to undertake transactions.
Once core banking system is implemented across all post offices by next year, it will offer users flexibility to visit any branch. The IT modernization project of post offices is underway with an investment of about Rs 5,000 crore. India Post has overtaken the State Bank of India to become India's largest core banking network with 18,231 branches.
Postal department plays a huge role in disbursing wages to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries. Nearly 6.92 crore MGNREGS accounts have been opened in post offices up to December 2015 and the number of post office savings bank (POSB) accounts has increased from 30.86 crore to 33.97 crore, according to the latest Economic Survey. Because of these reasons, the department of posts is planning to install ATMs so that it can benefit even the lower strata of the society.
As many as 25 commercial banks and institutions including Deutsche Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Axis, Yes Bank and IDBI have evinced interest in partnership with India Posts for their Payments Bank venture. Payments bank will be able to products such as demand deposits and remittances. They will not be allowed to undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to hold a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per customer. However, they will be allowed to issue ATM or debit cards as other prepaid payment instruments, but not credit cards.
Government to digitise 1.3 lakh rural post offices by March 2017
The government plans to digitise nearly 1.3 lakh rural post offices by March 2017, IT and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Parliament on Friday.
The government has approved Rs 4,909 crore for modernisation of 1.55 lakh post offices including 1.29 lakh post offices in rural areas, called Gramin Dak Sewak post offices. The modernisation process will include setting up centralised data centres and disaster recovery centres, networking of all post offices.
The government has approved Rs 4,909 crore for modernisation of 1.55 lakh post offices including 1.29 lakh post offices in rural areas, called Gramin Dak Sewak post offices. The modernisation process will include setting up centralised data centres and disaster recovery centres, networking of all post offices.
The budget also includes training postmen who will be given solar powered hand held devices, connected to data centers via SIMs, which will give rural consumers access to financial remittances and saving accounts through biometric scanning apart from other identification tools.
Telecommunication Consultant India Limited ( TCIL) will provide the handheld devices alongside RICOH India Limited, and also ensure connectivity, while Infosys will be the Rural System Integrator, the minister said in Parliament.
The devices will also offer core banking solution through a mobile app, which ties into the Postal Department's future plan of introducing payment bank services. Core banking solution has been rolled out in 18,231 Post Offices, which is now the largest, surpassing State Bank of India.
About 23.81 crores postal saving bank accounts have been digitised, including 80,000 in rural areas. All the 25,297 departmental post offices in the country have been computerized while data centre was started in Navi Mumbai in April 2013, and disaster recovery centre has been functioning in Mysuru since May last year.
After Amazon, Flipkart and Naaptol tie up with Postal Dept.
The postal department is gaining ground as a popular e-commerce delivery platform with more online retailers tying up with it to deliver parcels. From March, post offices will start delivering orders of major players like Flipkart and Naaptol too.
At present, the department has tied up with 143 e-commerce players, the major one being Amazon, for delivery of articles in Tamil Nadu. Of these, nearly 100 are from Chennai. Nearly 5,500 products ordered online either through prepaid or cash-on-delivery modes are being delivered daily.
“We are now concentrating on faster delivery of articles on the same day and monitoring complaints for better delivery service,” said J.T. Venkateswarulu, Postmaster general (mails and business development) said.
The articles received at Ekkaduthangal warehouse and St.Thomas Mount Speed Post centre are despatched in three days. “Nearly 98 per cent of the products are now delivered directly on the same day to customers in the city. Instead of sending them through 65 delivery post offices in the city, these products are directly despatched from St. Thomas Mount. Flipkart is already delivering a few articles through post offices on a trial basis. It will start full-fledged operations in Chennai from March,” Mr.Venkateswarulu said.
Besides small and medium retailers, institutions like Tamil Nadu Open University also use the service. The department earned Rs.8.7 crore through e-commerce initiatives last year. Chennai contributes to nearly 50 per cent of the revenue. Of the Rs.370 crore revenue targeted this year (January to December), post offices plan to earn Rs.15 crore through e-commerce in the State, officials said. “We are expecting business to increase by nearly Rs.2.5 crore a year once Flipkart and Naaptol start providing products for delivery,” he added.
The department has also introduced a text message service where customers will be informed of product delivery by the postal staff members. Moreover, State Bank of India will start using speed post services of post offices to deliver debit cards and cheque books from March, officials added.
Second Wife can claim Benefits of Deceased Husband - Bombay High Court
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday held that the second wife of a Union government employee can claim retirement benefits of the deceased husband.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice GH Waghela and Justice VK Tahilaramani was hearing the petition filed by the first wife of the deceased, working at the Ammunition Factory in Pune. He had nominated his second wife to receive all retirement benefits in January 2010, after he cancelled the nomination of his first wife after giving her a divorce.
First wife moves HC.
On being aggrieved by the order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal in September 2013, that held that the second wife would receive all the benefits, the first wife moved the High Court. The court said, “We also have to go by the fact that the first nomination in favour of the first wife was duly cancelled and a fresh nomination was filed separately by the deceased for Death-Cum-Retirement Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance benefits in favour of the second wife.”
‘Not possible to ignore nomination’
The court noted that it was not possible to ignore the nomination made by the deceased in favour of the second wife. The court also observed that approximately six months prior to his death, the deceased had promptly informed his office about his second marriage and about his divorce.
He had also told his office about the nomination filed in favour of the second wife relating to retirement benefits, the Bench said.
Recovery of wrongful / excess payments made to Government servants.
To view DoPT memo dated 2nd March 2016, please CLICK HERE.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Highlights of Union Budget 2016-17
Following are the highlights of Union Budget 2016-17 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Monday:
* No change in personal Income Tax slabs
* 4-month Compliance Window for domestic black money holders; tax, interest on them at 45%
* Relief for tax payers who earn below Rs 5 lakh; ceiling of rebate u/s 87A raised to Rs 5,000 from Rs 2,000
* House rent deduction raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000
* One-time dispute resolution scheme for retro taxcases, penalty, interest waived
* High level committee headed by Revenue Secretary to oversee creation of fresh liability using retro tax law
* Corporate Tax for new manufacturing units fixed at 25%
* Clean energy cess increased from Rs 200/ton to 400/ton on coal, lignite and peat
Kendriya Vidyalaya Recruitment for Various Teachers Positions 2016 :
| Kendriya Vidyalaya Recruitment for Various Teachers Positions 2016 : |
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Anand Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notification | Application Form
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Diu Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notifications | More Details
- Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 AFS Jamnagar Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Advertisement| Notifications
- Kendriya Vidyalaya CRPF Gandhinagar Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notification | Application Form | More Details
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Silvassa Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notification | More Details
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Godhra Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notification | More Details
- Kendriya Vidyalaya ONGC Vadodara Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notification | Application Form
- Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 Vadodara Recruitment for Various Teachers Posts : Notification | Application Form
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