Andhra postal dept eyes Rs 94cr revenue

Plans to wipe out deficit by 2008; to soon launch innovative schemes to buoy revenue inflow

Andhra Pradesh Circle of the Department of Posts is targeting total revenue of Rs 94 crore this fiscal, as compared to Rs 60 crore in the last fiscal. The department has already earned Rs 47 crore for the period up to September this year.

The increasing revenues, however, have not improved the financial situation of the department with continuing deficit woes. Last fiscal, the department suffered a deficit of Rs 112 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, Govindarajan, chief postmaster general of Andhra Pradesh Circle, said: "The increasing establishment costs, government norms with regard to bonus, dearness allowance and so on, have led to the increase in deficit despite growing revenues. We hope to wipe out the deficit by 2008," he added.

The department is planning to come out with innovative schemes to increase its revenues. One of the new schemes that it plans to launch within a month is the distribution of BSNL's India Telephone Cards. "In the first phase, post offices in major towns of Andhra Pradesh like Hyderabad, Tirupati, Vijayawada will be distributing these cards," Govindarajan pointed out.

It is also coming up with Logistics Post that will involve cargo movement. "The scheme will undergo trial next month and by February next year, Andhra Pradesh will have this facility," said Govindarajan.

Among the other latest offerings from the department, will be e-BillPost that will help the postal department to collect payment of bills on behalf of the service provider.

"The database of the service provider will be updated automatically with the software that we will customise for these services. Airtel, Reliance and BSNL are in talks with us regarding this service," he added.

In August this year, the department set up a software development centre for such services. Taking into consideration the information technology revolution, it is also working on computerising its offices. Out of the 104 head offices that the state department has, about 24 are fully computerised.

"The remaining 80 will also be computerised by the end of this year," Govindarajan said. It also uses the very small aperture terminal (VSAT) system that helps the department to send money orders via satellite.

"Last year, around one lakh money orders were sent through satellite. At present, 122 post offices in the state have VSAT network," he added.

E-Post that was launched in January this year has been a major step in bridging the digital divide. "Messages from any part of the country can be sent through this service. The message is just scanned and sent to our networks through e-mail and sent again by regular mail or e-mail to the required destination. This way, time is saved in transmission," Govindarajan said. The charge for this service is Rs 10 for A4 size paper.

The department also provides unique advertising media for sponsors. Sponsors have used the Meghdoot post card that is priced at 25 paise per card successfully. "The cards were used in National games, Afro-Asian games and so on. The state department had about 11 releases of these cards last year and for issue of around one lakh cards it earned a revenue of Rs 2 lakh," he said.

The department has also launched many state-specific services. Eamcet, B R Ambedkar Open University and APPSC forms are sold at many post offices across the state.

Besides, through speed post, Kanakadurga temple's prasad is also made available to the customers during Dassehra at their doorstep. The department is also in tie-up with Pista House to sell haleem at the post offices during this Ramzan.

Financial services have been the mainstay of the postal department. While on 7 October, 2004, the department entered into a tie-up with Oriental Insurance to sell around eight non-life insurance products, in September this year it tied-up with UTI Mutual Fund for selling their products.

In 1995, it launched the rural postal life insurance and within nine years it sold 5.84 lakh policies with the sum assured being Rs 2,854 crore. This year it has set a sum assured target of Rs 2,000 crore.

Through the international money transfer scheme, the department in collaboration with Western Union made about 25,701 transfers last year, worth Rs 62 crore. A one-way transfer scheme, this service helps people staying abroad to send money to people in India.

Andhra Pradesh, at present, ranks second on an all-India basis. "We hope to overtake Tamil Nadu in about three months," Govindarajan said. Currently, about 374 locations in the state provide this service.