With changing times, India Post is moving towards non-traditional businesses, including e-commerce, payments banks and other value-added services. The postal department earned Rs 9,530.9 crore from its non-traditional verticals between FY18 and FY20, as per a reply by the Ministry of Communications in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre told the Lower House that India Post earned earned Rs 3415.35 crore from non-traditional sectors like e-commerce and payments bank during 2017-18, Rs 3051.55 crore in 2018-19, and Rs 3,064 crore in 2019-20. Till January 21, 2021, the earnings from these channels stood at Rs 1,565.71 crore.
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Speed Post remained the biggest earner for India Post, accounting for 54 per cent to 63 per cent of revenue from value-added services and non-traditional sectors between FY18 and FY20. Meanwhile, the revenue share of Business Post declined sharply from 21.88 per cent in 2017-18 to 8.9 per cent in 2018-19 and 4.39 per cent in 2019-20.
Miscellaneous services including e-commerce, Greeting Post, National Bill Mail, Flat Rate Parcel, over night parcel, e-VPP, International Speed Post, retail activities such as sale of forms, examination/recruitment fee, cable TV registration fee, fee from ATM interoperable, CSC, gold bond, etc, cumulatively were another major source of revenue for India Post. The postal department earned Rs 477 crore from these services in FY18, Rs 556 crore in FY19 and Rs 768 crore in FY20. In FY21, till January 21, the figure stood at around Rs 294 crore.
Notably, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) didn't earn anything in the past three financial years. In FY21, till January 21, 2021, the payments bank raked in revenue of Rs 26 lakh, or 0.02 per cent of the total revenue earned from value-added and non-traditional services.
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