Post Offices shift to E-Certificates - Once the electronic mode is in place, customers will be given one certificate or one entry in the passbook

Post offices in the city have discontinued issuing National Savings Certificates (NSC) and Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) from April 1 in pre-printed form. The Department of Posts plans to shift to electronic mode of issuing these certificates soon. At present, KVP certificates are issued under various denominations from Rs.1,000 to Rs. 50,000 and NSC at denominations up to Rs.10,000. Postal Department officials said this was a tedious process as there was a lot of paper work involved in issuing each certificate. For instance, if a customer invests Rs.10 lakh in KVP, 20 certificates under denomination of Rs.50,000 have to be issued. It would be cumbersome for customers to maintain these many certificates. Moreover, the interest rates of savings schemes will be revised as per the government directive and transferring such schemes to electronic mode was imperative to maintain records and avoid incorrect data entry, the officials said. While the maturity period for NSC is five years, the amount invested in KVP doubles in 110 months. Once the electronic mode is in place, customers will be given one certificate or one entry in the passbook, officials said. Of the Rs.10,730 crore earned as revenue last fiscal, postal savings schemes contributed to nearly Rs. 6,000 crore. There was a lot of paper work involved in issuing each NSC and KVP certificate