Postal savings schemes to have passbooks

RATE REVISION HASN’T AFFECTED NUMBER OF DEPOSITORS, SAYS POSTMASTER GENERAL

From July 1, customers investing in Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and National Savings Certificates (NSC) will not be issued printed certificates. They will instead get them as passbooks.

Earlier, the Department of Posts planned to shift to issue the certificates in electronic mode.

However, officials said that as the efforts to issue e-certificates did not materialise, it was decided to provide KVP and NSC in the form of passbooks.

At present, about 25,000 certificates of KVP and NSC are being sold under various denominations every month in the Chennai city region. While the KVP is available from Rs.1,000 to Rs.50,000, the denomination for NSC starts at Rs.100 and is restricted to Rs.10,000.

Discontinued next month

Officials said issuing of certificates would be discontinued from next month as the printed forms with specific denominations had to be transported from another place.

“If there was a delay in obtaining the certificates of certain denomination, it led to shortage. Moreover, losing certificates also led to several complications,” said an official.

Now, customers can obtain a duplicate passbook in case of damage or loss.

Mervin Alexander, Postmaster General, said the number of customers depositing in various postal saving schemes had not decreased after revision of rates. Nearly 60,000 new accounts have been opened even after the interest rates were reduced up to one per cent over the past two months.

The Chennai city region contributes about 10 per cent of over six lakh deposits under various schemes in the State.

“Several people continue to invest mostly in Selvamagal Semippu account, public provident fund, senior citizen savings scheme and the NSC.

Saving schemes

Postal savings schemes contributed to about Rs.6,000 crore of total revenue earned during the last fiscal. Of this, nearly four per cent of revenue was gained from the NSC and KVP certificates,” he said.

Meanwhile, postal agents noted that some new investors hesitated to deposit in postal schemes after the dip in interest rates. S. Rajpandian, vice-president of Tamil Nadu Postal Agents Welfare Association, said: “The new rates have reduced by 0.6 per cent to one per cent, and some schemes like time deposit and monthly income scheme are witnessing a slight drop in customers. But, agents act as a bridge in canvassing for postal schemes and have to be encouraged with better incentives.”

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/