Post office deposit limits eased for small savings schemes, PPF
NEW DELHI: Following a steady stream of complaints from customers who were finding it difficult to deposit cheques into small savings schemes at post offices, the Department of Posts has notified a relaxation of the earlier guidelines.
According to an order from the department, earlier this month, post office savings bank customers may now deposit a cheque of any amount at non-home branch post offices as long as the deposits are made towards a list of select schemes, including Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Post Office Small Savings (POSS) schemes.
Before the rule change, customers and depositors were only allowed to deposit a maximum of Rs 25,000 per day into post office accounts as long as the deposits were made in non-home branch offices. This had served as a constant source of complaints from depositors since it made large deposits difficult.
“Various representations were received by the directorate to reconsider the limit of Rs 25,000 prescribed for accepting POSB cheques at other SOLs (non-home service outlets) in a day in an account. After examining the issue, the competent authority has decided to rationalise the process for accepting the POSB cheque in other SOLs,” an order from the Department of Posts said.
According to the earlier rulebook, all post office savings bank cheques issued by any CBS Post Office would have to be treated as at par cheques and would not be sent for clearing. However, the guidelines had also said that “No POSB cheque for more than Rs 25,000 should be accepted at other SOLs in a day”. Essentially, this meant that while POSB account holders could deposit only up to Rs 25,000 in non-home branch service outlets.
This has now been replaced with the following rule: “No POSB cheque for more than Rs 25,000 should be accepted for cash withdrawal at other SOLs in a day. However, POSB cheque can be accepted at other SOLs without the restriction of amount, for credit in Post Office Savings Bank, Recurring Deposits, PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts, subject to the limits, if any, prescribed in the scheme.”
The move will help post office savings account holders to deposit cheques of any amount in any non-home post office branch in schemes like their savings account, RD, PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi Account.
The India Post department has been steadily ramping up the services it offers to customers even as it rationalises earlier obsolete guidelines. Earlier, in October this year, India Post had rolled our mobile banking services for the first time for customers of core banking solution-enabled post offices. This had come nearly a year after it rolled out internet banking.
Crux of the matter
Post office savings bank customers may now deposit a cheque of any amount at non-home branch post offices as long as the deposits are made towards a list of select schemes, including PPF and POSS schemes
Earlier, customers and depositors were only allowed to deposit a maximum of Rs 25,000 per day into post office accounts as long as the deposits were made in non-home branch offices. This had been a constant source of complaints from depositors