Post offices to offer CBS service,issue debit cards soon

She said the batch-wise training of the officers from 34 divisions will be completed shortly. They have been trained in CBS at Hyderabad at the offices of the State Bank of India and the Administrative Staff College of India.

In the first phase,the service will be launched simultaneously at 100 post offices.

Five hundred post offices will be covered in the second phase and the remaining 12,000 post offices in the third and final phase.

By 2012,all 20 crore post office accounts in all categories like Public Provident Fund,savings accounts,Monthly Income Plan accounts and National Savings Certificate accounts will be operated through CBS,said sources in the postal department.

In Gujarat,there are 1.2 crore accounts in post offices. All officers in the Gujarat circle have been trained in CBS at Hyderabad.

Once operational,this will not only increase visibility of post offices in the financial sector but also help in doing away with the logistics problems faced by the people.

Sources further said that to add value to postal accounts,the department is also planning to issue debit cards to account holders once it ties up with nationalised banks for ATM sharing arrangement.

Besides,the plan to introduce its own credit cards to account holders is also in the pipeline for which the department will negotiate with Mastercard for payment gateway,said sources.