Investment in Postal TD and PPF Schemes increasing
Though stocks made a comeback in 2009 by growing almost 100 per cent .Since March, investors continued to find value in the fixed asset classes like bank fixed deposits (FDs), post office schemes and national savings certificates. Interest rates in the first quarter of the calendar year 2009 (January-March) were at their highest in three years.While banks offered interest rates in the range of 9.25 per cent to 10.5 per cent to attract deposits, post office schemes and NSCs have been offering in excess of 8 per cent compounded annually. Banks such as SBI and others were attracting close to Rs 1,000 crore a day as deposits since retail and corporate investors found these safe havens most rewarding.According to a senior SBI official, the interest rates offered last year by banks made many investors withdraw money from mutual funds and invest in bank FDs to earn guaranteed returns. “Investors put money in bank FDs for three reasons — investments, transactional requirement and safety. Over the last year, people have considered FDs for safety and transactional requirements,” the official said. The savings rate for Indian households fell in 2008 and early 2009 as stocks crashed and liquidity was hard to find.According to RBI data, in the first four months of 2009-10, more than Rs 2,30,000 crore deposits were collected, which forms 35 per cent of the deposits collected in 2008-09. NBFCs too witnessed a surge in deposits. But as stock markets bounced back and the system was flush with liquidity, interest rates on deposits fell by 350-400 basis points from January.Assured return schemes have suddenly emerged the most sought after among investors. This is not surprising given the huge losses that investors suffered in last year’s stock market crash, properties, derivatives and certain fixed income products; pushing investors to safer options.Public Provident Fund is a 15-year scheme and requires annual subscription to keep the account active. The amount deposited and interest earned is completely exempted from income tax. According to data collected by India Post, there has been an incremental growth in both the number of accounts opened by people under PPF and ticket size of amount kept in it. According to the postal department, over Rs 23,401 crore were invested by people in 22.09 lakh PPF accounts as on March 31, 2009.Post office term deposits are fixed deposits that can be made in multiples of Rs 200 with no upper limit. The investments can be made for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years or 5 years, but only investments in 5-year deposits are eligible for tax benefits. A senior official from India Post, on condition of anonymity, said around 22.07 crore accounts were opened under the various post office schemes and PPF through all the centres across India up to September 2009. This shows an incremental rise of 2 crore accounts being added in just six months from March to September.“These schemes (various POS and PPF) though offer a tad lower interest rates have sovereign guarantee and people are in for steady interest rates than the fluctuating ones where they stand to lose in longterm,” he said.According to the official, during uncertain times, these types of schemes will continue to do well. The period starting October is expected to be very good for all schemes as that is the time when people start thinking about annual investments.
Minimum wage raised to Rs.100/-
Bringing relief to the working class of the country facing an unprecedented price rise, the government has decided to hike the minimum wages to Rs 100 from existing Rs 80 per day. “The decision to hike minimum wages to Rs 100 per day would be implemented with retrospective effect from November 1, 2009,” a Labour Ministry source told.“The national floor labour minimum wage has been revised from November 1 on the basis of ensuing consumer price index,” the source said.
Consequently, the Ministry has asked states and Union Territories to “fix and revise minimum rates of wages” so as to ensure that in none of the scheduled employment, the minimum wages are less than Rs 100 per day, the source said.
The move comes in the backdrop of growing demand from the working class to review the wage which was last revised in 2007 from Rs 56 to Rs 80. Several trade unions had made representations demanding a hike in minimum wage.
Relaxation of LTC rules
As per D o P &T memo no. F.No. 3101113 /2009- Estt.(A) the use of own car/hired taxi for the purpose of LTC may be admissible to the handicap employees or handicap dependant members by the Head of the Department after obtaining the following documents/conditions to avoid misuse.
(i)Medical Certificate from competent authority.
(ii) Undertaking from Government servant that journey in authorized mode IS
not feasible and he actually travelled by own car/hired taxi.
(iii) such claim should not be more than journey performed by the entitled
class by rail/air by the shortest route
The Courier, Express, and Postal Business and the Nobel Prize
Accenture to modernize Department of Posts.
Changing face & Role of 
Postal Core Banking in Orissa
Your neighbor hood post office will now also double up as your bank. India Post would launch core banking facility in Orissa by the end of this month.
The core banking will start at five places - Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Berhampur. Assessing its success, it would be extended to other parts of the State, Chief Post Master General Yeshodhara Menon said here on Friday. India Post, at present, is celebrating the National Postal Week.
As things stand today, it has already tied up with State Bank of India (SBI) for collection of loan applications against various types of securities. So far, applications for Rs 16.2 lakh have been received.
Modernising itself, the DoP has already computerised 479 of its branches and aims at completing its total automation work by 2011.
Menon informed that the Orissa Circle of has taken up a pilot project to pay the wages under NREGS on smart card basis. Termed the NREGS ICT Pilot Project this is currently under implementation in 25 branch post offices of the State where at least 5,000 smart cards have already been issued. Once successful, the project will be extended soon.
Currently, a large chunk of India Post’s saving bank accounts are NREGS wage earners. It has opened 8,68,422 accounts where Rs 57.38 crore was deposited out of which s 45.74 crore has been disbursed.
The CPMG Orissa said India Post has ventured into insurance sector and plans a huge coverage in near future.
Among others, Post Master General SK Kamila and Director (Postal Services) L Pradhan were present.
B-school chalks out DoP revamp
Department of Posts may get a fresh lease of life if Jamnalal Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai, has its way. A team of students from the business school has chalked out innovative strategies to revamp the business of India Post, which is the most-widely distributed post office system in the world with more than 155,000 post offices
The strategies provided to make postal services commercially viable include tying up with fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, gift shops, cellular service companies, banks and other financial institutions to deliver their products, mobile bills and debit/credit card statements.
The paper is part of ‘Strategym 2009’, the annual business convention of JBIMS, to be hosted on October 27 and 28. In the past, the business school’s papers have been adopted by renowned corporations like LIC and UTV, to name a few.
“We are in talks with some FMCG companies and postal officials to explore opportunities of setting up a website, where companies can post details of their products and consumers can order them and pay by cash on delivery or by credit card. The postman can collect the goods from the FMCG companies and deliver them to the consumer. Apart from getting the deepest possible penetration for the companies, this model will also get regular business of high volumes to the postal department, whereas the end consumers will get home delivery of all the FMCG products on time, thus providing a win-win situation to all. The revenue-generating strategy will first be implemented only in major metros,” says Bhushan Dhade, a team member.
The students also propose to make post offices work in two shifts between 8 am to 8 pm, instead of the current norm of closing at 5 pm, thus optimally utilising its manpower and other infrastructure, and making itself more approachable to the general people who work between 9 am and 7 pm. The students believe that, instead of a voluntary retirement system to cut down on manpower, increasing the working time with two shifts will be in the best interest of the postal department’s over 500,000 employees.
As part of the study conducted to revive one of the oldest sectors of the country, the students visited remote areas of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and other states in India, where they found that most farmers and villagers still borrow money at exorbitant interest rates from local money lenders.
The students suggest that if the postal department’s huge deposits of its postal savings scheme can be given as loans to poor farmers and villagers against a collateral security of land or precious jewellery, it will provide poor people in rural India an exploitation-free source of money at much lesser interest rates. On the other hand, the money in savings scheme will be utilised in a better way.
Other strategies include delivering mobile bills and debit/credit card statements, assuming that the department can charge Rs 10 for a mail being delivered with a guarantee of delivery within 48 hours. The team also suggests tying up with gift companies from where the gifts can be directly mailed to the consumer by the postman.
The six-member team, which aims to make the department self-financing, worked on the rationale that post is a primary means of communication for a large part of the Indian population but very little attention has been given to it. Situation is such that perhaps India — along with its neighbours, namely Pakistan and Bangladesh — are the only countries wherein the postal department has been so bereft of reforms.
The study states that, on an average, a post office serves an area of 21.26 sq km and a population of 6,602. Postal services encompass three broad areas of activity — retailing postal products and services, transmission of postal articles and delivery of postal articles.
Owing to the far-flung reach and its presence in remote areas, India Post is also involved in other services such as small savings banking and financial services and is also utilised by other departments of the Central government and state governments to perform several functions on their behalf. But, due to slow induction of technology and old staff norms, manpower costs increased exponentially.
Corresponding adjustment of product and service pricing lagged behind expenditure in a soft state, which perceived postal services as the common man’s means of communication and, therefore, needed to be under-priced with the state picking up the subsidy tag. The postal deficit met from the general budget increased 1632.8 per cent from 1998-99 to 2008-2009 to reach Rs 5,395 crore, competing for top place with food and fertiliser subsidies
From 'annas' to millions, Post Office Savings Bank has come a long way
With a minimum amount of four annas ( 0.25 paisa) and with an interest rate of 3.75 per cent per annum, the 'Post Office Savings Bank' came into existence during the period of Director General Sir RF Fogg in 1882. But, no one had ever imagined that the Post Office Saving Bank would play a vital role in the GDP (gross domestic product) of the country. With the ongoing postal week, October 10 will be celebrated as the 'Savings Bank Day'. The day will be utilised to establish better communication with customers as well as to enhance the revenue collection by opening maximum savings account in the city. Chief Post Master Krishna Kumar Yadav said: "On the basis of networking, Post Office Savings Bank is the largest retail bank of the country. It had a deposit of Rs 3,515,477.2 million in the year 2007 and, according to a World Bank Report, the savings at post offices was equivalent to seven per cent GDP of the country. It has a network of 1,54,000 branches and more than 172 million savings bank account holders. Around 2,80,000 accounts are being operated by people at Kanpur General Post Office. "In the current financial year, around 54,394 new accounts have been opened. Around 1,900 accounts are beneficiaries of NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, now Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act)," he informed. Since all banking services are provided by the postal department, Yadav discussed about various savings schemes which are going to be monetarily beneficial for those investing in them. "These are such schemes which will definitely attract a large number of people and we are hopeful of a good response." The various savings schemes include 'Savings Deposit' where one can open an account with a minimal amount of Rs 50 and can withdraw it any time. Whereas 'Term Deposits' are quite popular with clients as they provide the facility to deposit a certain amount of money for one year to five year at different rates of interest, per annum. The Chief Post Master also mentioned about the 'Recurring Deposits' where people have to open an account with a certain sum of money and has to deposit the same amount monthly for a year. Further discussing about the schemes, another officer said: "There is also the 'Senior Citizen Savings Schemes' which is only meant for the elderly. Besides Public Provident Fund Scheme, monthly income schemes are also very popular. They provide monthly interest to the depositor which is equivalent to fixed monthly income."Tracking of Speedpost articles and eMOs
For SMS Tracking of Speed Post articles ,
type:SP(space)Speed Post Number
AND
For SMS Tracking of eMO,
type:MO(space)PNR Number
And send the sms to 55352 Each SMS costs Rs.2/- only
The Gist of the orders is furnished below.
Fixation of Pay:- Pay to be revised from 01-01-2006
(a) Allowance as on 31-12-2005+ (b) TRCA(5% fixed) + 74% DA( on a+b)+ fitment amount
then the allowance will be fixed at the stage in the corresponding scale.
Annual increase will be given after completion of one year from 1-1-2006.
Fixation of TRCA in the revised rate will be done by the Divisional Supdt. and other independent units (Gazetted Postmasters etc. for their staff only)The statement of fixation of TRCA and rate of annual increase up to 30-09-2009 to be sent to DDO for drawal of arrears from 01-01-2006 to 30-09-2009. 40% of Arrear to be paid before 31-10-2009 on receipt of the prescribed undertakings and the rest will be in the next F.Y after specific orders in this regard.The undertakings to be kept in guardfile at Divisional Office.
Other allowances effective from: 09-10-2009
OMA for BPM/GDS SPM=Rs.100
FSC for BPM/GDS SPM Rs.25 and for others Rs.10/- P.M.
Cash Conveyance Allowance Rs.50/- p.m
CMA for Rs.60/- p.m.
CDA for BPM Rs.500/- or 250/- as the case may be.
Exgratia gratuity Rs.60000/- and Severance allowance Rs.60000/-(Max.)
In order to expedite the procedure for drawal of Arrear and Allowances, all are requested to collect the undertakings from the GDS and submit to the respective DDO immediately. The proforma of UNDERTAKING is furnished below.
UNDERTAKING
I hereby undertake that any excess payment that may be found to have been made as a result of incorrect fixation of pay or any excess payment detected in the light of discrepancies noticed subsequently will be refunded by me to the Government either by adjustment against future payments due to me or otherwise.
Date
Signature -------------------
Station
Name -----------------------
Designation-----------------
Department of Posts Signs Invest Pact With two Fund Managers
India's federal postal department Tuesday signed pacts with two fund managers to help manage cash that it will collect daily as premiums from its life insurance customers.
The funds to be managed will be equally split between state-run UTI Asset Management Company and SBI Fund Management, a government statement said.
"The net accretion to the postal life insurance and rural postal life insurance will now be invested as per the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority guidelines," statement said.
The guidelines allow the fund managers can invest up to 15% of the total cash in shares.
Approximately 5,000 full-time Postal Service employees -- but not letter carriers -- stopped working this week after accepting buyouts.
Happy Friday! Approximately 5,000 full-time Postal Service employees eligible for retirement ended their Postal careers this week, accepting $15,000 buyout offers as part of a cost-cutting move. Another 18,000 full-time workers have also accepted the offer, but have until Oct. 31 to complete the paperwork or opt out.
The Postal Service announced the buyout program in August as a way to save up to $500 million during the new fiscal year, which began on Thursday.
Officials stress that these are preliminary figures and likely to change as workers make their final decisions. In addition to the full-time staff, part-timers have until Oct. 16 to initially accept the buyout and until Nov. 30 to make a final decision.
The offer was extended to post office retail clerks, distribution center mail handlers and clerks, and vehicle technicians. Letter carriers were not eligible, because the Postal Service only targeted areas of its where it has an excess of workers, and the number of addresses grows, on average, by 1.5 million each year.
The Postal Service secured $4 billion in financial assistance from Congress earlier this week, meaning it will pay only $1.4 billion to pre-fund retiree health benefits. Postal officials soon also will release updated information on the possible closure or consolidation of Postal facilities. Source-The Washington Post
Gifts of property (gifts-in-kind)
above value of Rs.50,000 /-
taxable from 01-10-2009
The Income Tax Act 1961 (the Act) has been amended with effect from 1st October 2009 to provide that any gift-in-kind, being an immovable property or any other property, the value of which exceeds Rs.50,000 (rupees fifty thousand), will become taxable in the hands of the donee, being an individual or a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), as income from other sources under clause (vii) of sub-section 2 of section 56 of the Act. Therefore, any such person who receives a gift of any such property on or after 1st October 2009 must pay the income tax due on the value of the gift and disclose the taxable value of such property in the return of income for assessment year 2010-11 and subsequent years.The following types of gifts will, however, not be subject to tax, i.e. gifts (a) from a person who is a relative; (b) on the occasion of marriage of the individual; (c) under a will or by way of inheritance; (d) in contemplation of death of the donor; (e) from any local authority as defined in the Explanation to section 10(20) of the Act; (f) from any fund or trust established under section 10(23C) of the Act; (g) from any trust or institution registered under section 12AA of the Act. Relative is defined in the Act as (i) spouse; (ii) brother or sister; (iii) brother or sister of the spouse; (iv) brother or sister of either of the parents; (v) any lineal ascendant or descendant; (vi) spouse of any of the relative at clauses (ii) to (v); of the individual. Gifts received from these relatives will not be subject to tax. Earlier cash gifts exceeding Rs.25,000 were subject to tax with effect from 1st April 2004. Later the Act was amended with effect from 1st April 2006 to tax all cash gifts having aggregate value exceeding Rs.50,000. Cash gifts also enjoy exemptions as is available for gifts-in-kind.
Source:PRESS RELEASE No.402/92/2006-MC (21 of 2009) Dated: September 30, 2009
India Post offers rebate on Gold Coins
Indian Posts launched a novel scheme for government officials this festival season by announcing that if they buy gold coins from the department they can get a rebate of 6 per cent.For the ongoing festive month, the Post Office department has launched the scheme to give a rebate of 6 per cent on the purchase of gold coins from September 24 till October 24 to all the government officials.Besides this, a scheme for general customers was also launched where 0.5 gm gold would be given free to all those who would purchase 10 gm gold from the post office. To avail this scheme, the customers are required to buy two coins of 5 gm each or a single coin of 8 gm or two coins of 1 gm each. Out of these two schemes a customer can only opt for one.Notably, all across the country the Indian Postal Department along with a private financial firm is selling 24 carat gold coins to all the post offices. The gold coins of weight 0.5 gm, 1 gm, 5 gm and 8 gm are available in post offices. These gold coins are manufactured by Valcambi Switzerland and are 99.99 per cent pure. To beautify them, they are also packed in silver cover.Gold coins are the hottest commodities on sale in India these days. While banks are competing with each other to open counters in their branches to sell gold coins, the postal department in association with brokerage firm Reliance Money and the World Gold Council (WGC) has been introducing novel schemes to sell coins through post offices. Buoyed by the huge success of gold coins sales through post offices, India Post is adding more post offices to step up the trade in the yellow metal. Every month, India Post is launching gold coins trade in new post offices. On Monday, India Post started the services in Jharkhand post circle, covering several post offices. And dozens of people came to the postal outlets to buy gold coins. India is the largest consumer of gold in the world. The approximate consumption of gold in India is around 700 tonnes per year. As per the currency scheme India Post-Reliance Money-WGC scheme, the postal department is selling 0.5 gm, 1 gm, 5 gm and 8 gm gold coins packed in tamper-proof sealed covers. India Post gives training in handling the software, developed by Reliance Money, for handling gold coins sale and transactions. Every customer is being given an invoice or bill detailing the transaction. While India Post earns an amount as commission, Reliance Money bears the service tax on the commission paid to India Post. The stocking and sale of gold coins in the post offices are under the direct supervision of the respective postmasters. The postmaster is required to check the Reliance Money web site on a regular basis for the latest updates of gold rates and discounts. Each coin comes with certification from Valcambi Switzerland and quality packaging, as well as a number and assayer certificate. The gold coins are packed in a sealed cover with the certification from Valcambi, Switzerland with the India Post logo. India Post is offering 5% special discount to its customers during festive seasons and special occasions.
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