Bhubaneswar: Beating the economic reverses due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Odisha circle of Department of Posts registered a significant growth in savings and insurance premiums in 2020-21 fiscal.
According to sources, the circle mobilised savings deposit of Rs 216.35 crore in 2020-21 against Rs 208.15 crore in 2019-20 and insurance premiums of over Rs 469.5 crore against Rs 406 crore in the last fiscal.
Similarly, 7.8 lakh accounts were opened during 2020-21 against 6.48 lakh in the previous fiscal. Till July in 2021-22 fiscal, it has attracted deposits of Rs 50 crore and premiums of Rs 152.63 crore.
“The growth in number of new savings accounts and business indicates the turnaround time. Apart from the deposits, payments of around Rs 558 crore were home-delivered during the period through India Post Payment Bank (IPPB),” TNIE quoted Chief Postmaster General (CPMG) Suvendu Swain as saying.
With 7,300 post offices and around 2.2 crore accounts, the India Post has account of every second person in the state, he added. The department has around 24,000 staff in the state.
He further said due to the depositors’ faith in the India Post for its service in spite of reverses like the pandemic, their number has been steadily increasing. It has also made sufficient inroads into rural areas for which the withdrawal limit at Gramin Dak Seva branches has been raised from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000.
Stating that the rising insecurities in life might have led the people to go for postal savings, he said the prompt payment of PLI and RPLI to the beneficiaries also helped in this regard.