India Post offers instant money remittance through mobile

India Post has tied up with BSNL to start this service where a message will be sent to the post office where money has to be delivered

Soon people will be able to transfer money within the country in a matter of minutes through India Post. The service will use a mobile to send a message to the post office where money is to be received, which will in turn handover the money to the beneficiary instantly.

The postal department will launch this instant mobile money remittance scheme with the help of BSNL Infrastructure by next month, chief postmaster general of Kerala circle, Sobha Koshy, announced.

In the first phase, the scheme will be implemented in select states like Kerala, Bihar, New Delhi and Punjab, Koshy told reporters after releasing a special postal cover in connection with the ruby jubilee celebrations of Kottayam Press Club.

In Kerala, the scheme will be implemented in 30 post offices in Idukki, Aluva and Pathanamthitta. As per the scheme, a person can send money through a post office which will send a message to the other post office about the amount to be given to the recipient at the other end, she said.

The service, if implemented properly, will not just boost post office revenue, but will also prevent a lot of hardship that migrant labour from these states face while sending money. Currently, most of them rely on people from their locality going back home, or sending money to people who have a bank account in the locality, who then give the money to the concerned person.

India Post currently offers money transfer through a tie up with Western Union, but with this mobile remittance service India Post will keep things in-house and will offer services to a wider audience. This system will also be easier to implement in post offices across the country.

Koshy said the process of computerising the entire postal network in the country, numbering 1,55,000 post offices, was going on.

The department is also planning to implement a range of products including e-post instead of letters, where a print out of an email message can be delivered to a person who doesn't own an internet connected PC or mobile; and electronic money order scheme by which up to Rs 5,000 can be sent with a small message.

While talk of the service has been going on for quite some time now, its effectiveness can only be judged in the coming times. Also interesting to see would be whether the project is implemented properly and if people will start using post offices again in large numbers.