Even
as its application to start a commercial bank is pending, India Post
has drawn a massive plan to install as many as 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh
micro-ATMs at the ubiquitous post offices across the country for savings
account holders by September 2015, a top official has said.
"We will be starting
with three ATMs to be installed in New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore on
February 5 and then ramp it up gradually," postal department secretary
Padmini Gopinath told a select group of reporters here over the weekend.She said 1,000 ATMs with
the India Post branding will be put in within the first year, which
will be ramped up massively to 3,000 in the next 18 months.
To start with, the ATMs
can be used only by 26 crore savings account-holders who save with the
postal department, but Gopinath exuded confidence that within six months
of the launch, they will get the interoperability permission from the
Reserve Bank.Postal savings are worth
around Rs 6.05 trillion, which is half the savings in the largest
lender SBI and more than double that of the largest private sector
lender ICICI Bank.Through
interoperability, India Post will join the National Financial Switch,
which will benefit India Post account holders to transact at the banks'
ATMs and vice versa, she added.
India Post has been working with software major Infosys on this project, she added.The micro ATMs will be
handheld devices to be operated at the post office level while the ATM
will be similar to the one operated by any commercial bank, she added.The postal department,
which has 1.55 lakh post offices over 90% of which are in villages,
offers the savings account to people across the country and pays an
interest of 4% per annum for such deposits. The account offers cheque
facility at present.
It can be noted that the
Department of Posts is fighting a very contentious battle to convert
itself into a full fledged bank, asserting that its reach can help
achieve the goal of financial inclusion.However, the finance
ministry has expressed some reservations about the idea, while Telecom
Minister Kapil Sibal has exuded confidence of winning over his Cabinet
colleagues to get the go ahead for the 'Postal Bank'.
