Post office savings account holders can start transferring money electronically now. According to a Department of Post circular issued on May 17, 2022, the NEFT facility has been made available for POSB customers from May 18, 2022 and RTGS facility will be available from May 31, 2022. This facility enables POSB customers to transfer funds to and from other bank accounts to POSB Accounts in DoP-CBS. DoP-CBS stands for Department of Posts – Core Banking Solutions.
As per the circular issued, “This is regarding roll out of NEFT/RTGS facility for POSB accounts which is going to be made operational for POSB account holders from 31.05.2022. Standard Operating Procedure for Payment Channel Division, Bengaluru (Annexure l), Standard Operating Procedure for end users of Post Offices (Annexure ll) and Standard Accounting Procedure (Annexure lll) are attached herewith. lt is, therefore, requested to circulate this to all concerned for information, necessary action and guidance. Wide publicity about the availability of NEFT/RTGS facility to POSB account holders may also be made through notice boards/information board of all the Post offices in public area.”
Later, a clarification was issued by the department on May 18, 2022. As per the clarification issued, “Attention is drawn to the SB Order No. 08/2022 issued vide this office letter of even no. dated 17.05.2022. ln this connection, after the references received from field units it is to be clarified that NEFT and RTGS are separate products. The SOP circulated for Post Offices in Annexure ll of the said order is for NEFT only. RTGS functionality is currently under testing and is expected to be rolled out by 31.05.2022. The roll out date for NEFT, as mentioned in para L of the SB Order No. 0812022 may be read as 18.05.2022. Separate SOP for RTGS will be circulated in due course before roll out.”
What is NEFT, RTGS
NEFT stands for National Electronic Funds Transfer and RTGS stands for Real Time Gross Settlement. These facilities are available 24X7X365, regardless of post office/bank holidays and timings.
NEFT transactions are settled every half an hour where first batch starts at 12:30 AM and last batch i.e., EOD batch is settled around midnight. RTGS transactions are settled in real time.
Under NEFT, the beneficiary gets the money on the same day or next day. Post office customers can send money to post office accounts from other bank using the Internet banking facility. For post office savings bank customers, there will be only one IFSC for all branches/POs. IFSC for POSB customer is IPOS0000DOP. Post offices should affix DoPs IFSC in all the savings, PPF and SSA passbooks in the first page as “IFSC: IPOS0000DOP”.
Charges for NEFT transactions
Following will be the services charges for customers initiated NEFT outward transactions:
| For transactions up to Rs 10,000 | Rs 2.50 + applicable GST |
| For transactions above Rs 10,000 up to Rs 1 lakh | Rs 5 + applicable GST |
| For transactions above Rs 1 lakh up to Rs 2 lakh | Rs 15 + applicable GST |
| For transactions above Rs 2 lakh | Rs 25 + applicable GST |
Maximum and minimum transaction limit
The minimum and maximum amount per transaction for NEFT remittance is Re 1 and Rs 15 lakh, respectively, as per SOURCE. The limit per transaction is Rs 2 lakh for outward NEFT through eBanking and m-banking channels. The maximum number of transactions permitted per day is five. Daily transaction limit for outward NEFT initiated through eBanking and m-Banking services is Rs 10 lakh. There is a time variable transaction capping for eBanking and m-Banking to mitigate fraud risk, stated SOURCE. Hence, the maximum transaction limit for outward NEFT initiated through eBanking/m-Banking from 8 PM to 8 AM is Rs 2 lakh.
Making an NEFT transfer via post office branch
Customers should have an active post office savings account to initiate outward NEFT remittance to other bank accounts. The counter PA should collect an NEFT mandate form along with SB -7/POSB cheque from the customer.
Once the supervisor verifies the transaction, a 16-digit UTR number (Example DOPH221100005618) will be generated which has to be noted in both the NEFT mandate form and SB-7 form or POSB cheque, by the supervisor.
Grievance mechanism
Customers can use any of the following methods to register complaints regarding their NEFT transactions:
a. Through India Post customer care number 1800 2666 868.
b. Through complaints section in India Post website https://www.indiapost.gov.in/VAS/Pages/ComplaintRegistration.aspx under financial services category, Savings bank service and select the type as NEFT.
c. Through SAP-CRM in any post office branch.
d. Post office end user should register the complaints under financial services- Savings Bank category in SAP-CRM option
e. UTR number is mandatory for registering complaints for all NEFT transaction related grievance.
f. Post Offices and circles can contact Nodal Office, Bengaluru for any operational support and critical issues. (email id – postatm@indiapost.gov.in)
