Post offices in remote parts of India will soon start serving as banks and provide automated teller machine (ATM) facility, following the Planning Commission of India giving an approval to the proposal of the Department of Postal Services to install ATMs in post offices, the Hindustan Times reported.
The Department of Postal Services had proposed the Post Bank scheme, suggesting to use the vast network of post offices for promoting inclusive growth and guaranteeing that people living in unbanked areas benefit from government's welfare schemes, Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot told the paper.
More than 850 post offices have beenidentified for installing the ATMs, which will also be connected with other public sector banks. The department already offers financial services, including post office savingsbank, postal life insurance, pension payments and money transfer services.
“Their (post office) saving account will be just like any other bank account,” a senior government official familiar with the matter said.
The Planning Commission will also sanction funds for installing ATMs in each post office in the 12th five-year plan, beginning April 1, 2012. The plan panel had authorized Rs 50 million in the 11th five-year plan to conduct study on setting up Post Bank of India on the lines of the ones in New Zealand and Japan.
The decision of the plan panel is directed at making post offices an important tool to improve delivery ofwelfare schemes, for which the Central government has allotted over Rs 1.8 trillion in the 2011-12 budget.
Indian postal department has a network of 1.44 lakh post offices pan-India with Rs 5.6 trillion worth of deposits.
Planning commission of India has been slow earlier but now it is very active and I'm looking forward to the ATM facility of post offices very eagerly. Thank you for this informative article..
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