Tag: India

The ministry of communications has rejected the proposal made by the Expenditure Reforms Commission to corporatise the postal department and decentralise tariff fixing powers for postal services. The commission had suggested that it could be included in the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2002, which was proposed to replace the Indian Post Office Act, 1898.

Ministry sources said the proposal to corporatise the postal department would not be feasible since postal services were heavily subsidised by the government. “Postal services require Budgetary support. Therefore, corporatisation does not make sense,” Ministry sources said.

India Post should be reformed to offer more meaningful role in the new economy, said speakers at a two-day seminar on India Post-2010 organised by World Bank, Department of Post, Indian government and India Invest Economic Foundation.

The Indian postal network with 1,54,000 offices and over 10 lakh employees, can play a vital role in inter-connecting the country to provide upgraded payments system and e-governance, said speakers like chairman of OASIS Foundation SA Dave, Administrative Staff College principal EAS Sharma, IDBI Principal MD Sanjay Sachdev, ICICI Bank Joint MD Chanda Kochhar and Regional director (Asia Pacific) Transend Worldwide Limited among others. They suggested to evolve a prudential regulation for India Post before it diversifies into financial and other related sector.