HYDERABAD: Enabling cashless transactions at the post offices, BV Sudhakar, chief postmaster general (PMG) and C R Sasi Kumar, Deputy managing director, State Bank of India, inaugurated Point of Sale (POS) machine at the General Post Office here on Saturday.
Speaking on the occasion,Sudhakar explained the initiative taken by the AP circle in collaboration with the SBI. “We have named this project ‘Turanth’, through which, the payments for registered post, parcels and other services would be accepted through debit and credit cards. Customers, especially in rural areas, can also draw an amount up to Rs 1,000 by using these machines,” he said.
‘Turanth’ which was initially launched at 108 post offices in Telangana and AP states on a pilot basis, will now be extended to another 2,467 post offices across both states within a month.
Gopal Krishan Kansal, chief general manager, SBI, said “SBI-India Post tie-up is a meeting of two giants, which is going to be a game changer and will lead to the digitization of payments across the country by deploying POS terminals, even in remote locations, to promote a cashless economy and to build card culture. The day is not so far, when the use of ATM machines will be drastically reduced, and it won’t even be surprising if there are no ATM machines at all because of the increase in usage of the cards .”
Sudhakar also explained the recent initiatives like TTD darshan ticket, sale of non-judicial stamp papers, distribution of ‘Godjal’ holy Pushkar water through post offices and the launching of a new e-commerce site of India Post.
A special cover to mark the golden jubilee year of SBI, Hyderabad circle was released by Sudhakar and presented to Sasi Kumar. ‘My Stamp’ service, which allows customers to have their photo on the stamp, has also been launched. The service will be available to the public from July 14.