New Delhi: The government has
allocated Rs500 crore to India Post Payments Bank for the financial year
2017-18 as it gears up to set up 650 branches across country by
September 2017.
The government has allocated Rs125
crore as “capital infusion into corporate entity for India Post Payments
Bank” and Rs375 crore as “grant in aid to India Post Payments Bank
(IPPB)”, as per Output-Outcome Framework for Schemes 2017-18 for the
department of posts (DoP) released on Monday.
India Posts is the second entity to roll
out payments bank—though on a pilot basis—in Raipur and Ranchi, after
Airtel that has earmarked Rs3,000 crore as initial investment for
pan-India operations with an interest rate of 7.25% on deposits.
Besides, Airtel is offering free money transfer from Airtel to Airtel
numbers within Airtel Bank, money transfer to any bank account in the
country.
The IPPB will offer an interest rate of
4.5% on deposits up to Rs25,000; 5% on deposits of Rs25,000-50,000 and
5.5% on Rs50,000-1,00,000. The total paid up equity of the new bank IPPB
is Rs 800 crore, of which the government has already infused Rs275
crore.
Payments banks can accept deposits up to
Rs1 lakh per account from individuals and small businesses. The new
model of banking allows mobile firms, super market chains and others to
cater to banking requirements of individuals and small businesses. The
allocation to IPPB is part of Rs1,034.13 crore earmarked for the
department of posts. The second big chunk of the total allocation,
Rs279.6 crore, has been allocated for providing IT hardware and software
in identified rural areas for improved access to services and customer
satisfaction, resulting in increase in customer transactions, traffic
and revenue.
The DoP has been allocated Rs110.83
crore for establishing e-commerce, parcel booking, international
business centres, Rs73.5 crore for estates management, Rs32 crore for
mail operations and Rs17.7 crore for equipments and IT infrastructure in
rural post offices. The government has allocated Rs3.8 crore for
setting up 246 offices and 200 outlets for providing better access to
communication and financial services.
