Dear Comrades,
NEW DELHI: The electronic post office launched this week has brought the familiar red and grey counters to your drawing room, making tiring trips and queuing up things of the past.
The website www.epostoffice.gov.in offers money order service, stamps and e-tracking of registered posts to start with. It creates a virtual post office on computer screens and leads customers to the counters.
The decision to launch an electronic post office was part of the post department's strategy to win back urban customers who now use banks to send money.
" The move is part of a set of innovative steps aimed at increasing the post office's brand value," said an official with the department.
Revenues from commission on money orders have been declining in the last few years as people looked to avoid long queues at post offices. There commissions have been declining since 2007 before marking an uptick last year. Higher commissions at 15% were also a reason for the decline.
In contrast, banks launched online demand draft and money transfer services. India Post's money order service will also face competition from mobile money transfers once the Unique ID number becomes prevalent in the country.
Pilot projects for mobile money transfer have been successful in rural villages. Ironically, Post Office Savings Bank, which had 206 million deposit accounts on March 31, 2009 is the largest banking network in the country.
The e-post office will also cater to philately enthusiasts. Payment for stamps and money orders can be made through a secured payment gateway, similar to the way online purchases are made.
A first hand experience of the e-post office highlighted some technical problems in the service. To start with, the e-post office is slow and online registration is a cumbersome process, as many fields don't work currently. But once unleashed fully, the e-post office is expected to cater to a large part of the 50 million internet users in India.
24 Feb, 2011, 03.34AM IST, Souvik Sanyal & Harsimran Julka,ET Bureau
