THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) Yes Madam. The Department of Posts established the Business Development Directorate in 1996 to design, develop and monitor Premium Products and Services and also value addition to the existing Products and Services to cater to the market needs. In July, 2007 the Business Development Directorate was also given the responsibility of Marketing and Publicity of all the services & products of the Department of Posts.
(b) The expenditure incurred and revenue generated in this regard during the last three years are as under:-
Expenditure incurred (Rs. in Lacs) Years Plan Expenditure Non-Plan Expenditure Total Expenditure 2012-13 22 368.94 390.94 2013-14 811 343.12 1154.12 2014-15 1280 380.8 1660.80
Revenue generated (Rs. in Lacs) Years Total 2012-13 244728 2013-14 272355 2014-15# 282868
#Preliminary figures upto March-2015
(c) The products and services of Business Development and Marketing Directorate are managed through the existing network of the Department. The Department undertakes study regarding viability of products and services through external sources as well as internal sources which includes market and customer satisfaction surveys. Studies have been undertaken for Speed Post, Express Parcel Post, Postal Life Insurance / Rural Postal Life Insurance, International Parcel, Commercial Mail, Money Transfer and Post Offices Savings Bank through M/s IMRB International (an International multi country market research and survey organization) from the period 2011 to 2013.
In addition to above, internal studies have been recently conducted on emerging e-Commerce market and rationalization of the product portfolio offered by the Department of Posts to cater to the e-Commerce market.
(d) and (e) Revision of product portfolio and tariff of various products is a continuous process keeping in view the market scenario, operational cost and the demand of the product. Steps are also taken regularly to modify service features to improve postal services and increase revenue of the Department.
As part of this continuous process Parcel services of the Department have been rationalized and two services namely, Business Parcel and Express Parcel have been introduced with effect from 2nd December, 2013 alongwith Cash on Delivery (COD) facility.
