The total revenue earned by Department of Posts (DoP) has grown over 11 per cent to about Rs 12,940 crore in 2015-16, Parliament was informed today.
DoP earned revenue of Rs 10,730.42 crore in 2013-14, which grew to Rs 11,635.98 crore in 2014-15 and further to Rs 12,939.79 crore in 2015-16, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
Besides providing purely postal services, post offices perform agency functions like Saving Bank, payment of pension, sale of Cash Certificates etc on behalf of other ministries/ departments, he said adding that the revenue earned is classified under five major heads.
"There is an increasing trend in revenue in three major heads -- postage realised in cash from speed post, registry, business post, parcels etc; commission from Savings Bank; and other major receipts," he said.
There is a decline in two heads of revenue -- sale of stamps and commission on money orders and Indian Postal Orders etc, he added.
Revenue from sale of stamps declined from Rs 670.67 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 576.18 crore in 2014-15 and further fell to Rs 441.75 crore in 2015-16.
Similarly, commission from money orders and Indian postal orders reduced to Rs 464.84 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 641.98 crore in 2014-15.
Responding to a separate query, Sinha said DoP has 34,452 male postman and 2,708 female Postman as permanent employees. It has 1,332 male Postman and 287 female Postman as temporary employees.
In another response, Sinha said the government has planned to set up up to 650 branches of India Post Payments Bank, co-located at each district headquarter post office by September this year.
Also, about 1,000 ATMs are proposed to be established to facilitate the customers of post office saving bank, he said.
Source:-The Times of India
