India Post Franchise

The Department of Posts is entrusted with granting access to basic postal facilities throughout the country. The India Post Franchise Scheme was initiated by the Department of Posts to provide increased access to Postal services in both urban and rural areas. In order to meet the demand for Post Offices, the Department provides postal services through India Post Franchise Scheme. In this article, we look at the India Post Franchise Scheme in detail. To know about Post Office Recurring Deposit Scheme

Objective of the Scheme

The primary objective of the India Post Franchise Scheme is to expand the Indian Postal network in the urban and rural areas by opening franchised outlets in underserved areas. This scheme aims to maximize the access of postal department range of products and services and enhancing the quality of services at any location in the country. Two types of franchises concept have been laid under the scheme.

The concept of providing counter service facilities through Franchise Outlets in areas where there is a demand for the postal services, but a post office cannot be opened.
The other concept is related to the sale of postal stamps and stationery through the postal agents in both urban and rural areas.

Features of the Franchise Outlet Scheme

The below following are the basic features of the urban franchise model:

Under this scheme, only counter services can be franchised, while the delivery and transmission-related services will continue to be through the Department. Linking of arrangements for the franchised outlets will be provided by the franchises.
The franchise will render service across the counter for a period of minimum time schedule defined with the flexibility to work round the clock.

Eligibility Criteria

For the opening of a new franchise, the applicant would need to submit an application form in a prescribed format. The selected franchise will have to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Department. The criteria for the selection has been fixed the department based on the applicant with the capacity to operate and market a range of products, along with a sense of the community needs public traits of the job, and willingness to accept technological options. The below following entities have to satisfy the criteria are as follows:

Individual, institutions, organizations, and other entities in urban and rural areas are eligible to apply under this scheme.
In the case of an individual, the applicant will have to sign an into an agreement and in the case of organization, institution or other entity, the Head of the institution or organization or entity will enter into an agreement.
The family members of serving postal employees are not eligible to avail this franchise scheme in the same division in which the postal employees are working.
The family members of the family for this purpose would include the following persons:
The spouse, but that not includes the separated spouse or the one living separately while the judicial separation proceedings are on.
The children and stepchildren but that not includes children and of whose custody the serving postal employee has been stepchildren deprived by law.
Other persons such as wards those who are dependent on their life with the serving postal employee. No upper age limit.
The age must be above 18 years and there is no upper age limit.
The educational qualifications to be 8th class pass from a recognized school institute.
Preference can be the Postal pensioners and those able to provide computer facilities.
Premises: A proper appropriately located and accessible premises, properly maintained with all the suitable display of the approved signages.
Applicant must be willing to make the necessary investments for the conduct of the business and also to provide details on how the premises will be operated.
A business plan has to be prepared to take into account the anticipated minimum level of revenue/business that is worked out by the Divisional Head for the specific franchise.
The average investment for infrastructure establishments and other facilities at the premises will be around Rs.1 to 1.5 Lakhs. The applicant will have to mention the minimum business generation feasibility in the location where the franchise is proposed to open. The minimum revenue generation has to be Rs.50000 per month that will be reviewed by the department on every biannual basis.
The security deposit in the form of National Savings Certificate (NSC), to be provided by the franchise, and that would be based on the maximum possible level of financial transactions likely be undertaken by the franchise in a day. The minimum security deposit to be Rs.5000. Further, it would be raised on the basis of daily average revenue.

Products and Services Offered

Many ranges of the products and services have features which are offered by the India Post are as follows:

Sale of stamps and stationery that also includes philatelic items can be sold by the franchisee.
Booking speed post articles, registered articles, money orders (on EDBO model),e-post, etc. There is no limit for the bulk booking of registered and speed post articles and also there is no rebate for the bulk booking of speed post articles will be admissible over the commission owing to the franchisees as applicable from time to time changes. The franchisees will not take a bulk booking from Book Now Pay Later (BNPL) customers.
In case of Bulk bookings the link post offices must report to the Head Office(HO) and it is further forwarded to the Divisional Office. Then the Divisional Office will make an alert to the Marketing Executives to make efforts to bring the customers into the fold of the Book Now Pay Later (BNPL) of the Department. The restrictions are imposed by the department regarding bulk booking are also applied to the franchisees.
Any money order for a value that is less than Rs.100 will not be booked by the franchisee outlets
Functioning as a direct agent for Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and provide related aftersales service, including the collection of premia.
The Department having a corporate agency or tie-up for the marketing products and it provides all related follow-up services that are subject to the agreement with the other involved organizations.
Providing retail services that include the sale of revenue stamps and Central Recruitment Fee (CRF) stamps and tagline collection/bill/payment services of the Department that is subject to the agreement with the other involved organizations.
Facilitating the rules relating to e-governance and citizen-centric services (subject to agreement with the other organizations involved)
Any other service initiated by the Department in future through its outlets which is supposed amenable to the franchise model that is subject to agreement with the other involved organizations.
The model has enough flexibility built in to allow a range of services that are to be extended through the outlets based on the needs or demands, and to increase the range when it is found necessary. Thus, the list of counter services that can be offered through the different outlets can differ, keeping in design of the location and its capacity to generate the revenues.

Implementation of the Scheme

The implementation of the franchise model will be in fast-developing areas of urban growth such as metros and their satellite towns, as also the urban and rural regions where there is a justification for the post offices on the distance norms but there is difficulty in providing the same through redeployment/relocation. In cases where there are significant revenue potential, the Head of the Circle may relax the norms where the franchise can be opened with subject to a minimum estimated monthly revenue amount generation of Rs.50,000 per month, and there is no adverse impact to the neighbouring post offices.