Wait for money ends; now transfer cash at the speed of SMS

PILOT EXPERIMENT BETWEEN BIHAR & PUNJAB POST OFFICES

NO PAPER WORK INVOLVED

June 1, 2011, Patna: In a unique experiment, the union department of posts would offer mobile money order service (MMOS) from today. As a pilot experiment, ten post offices each from Bihar and Punjab has been selected. MoS for Information Technology Gurdas Kamat is scheduled to inaugurate the service via videoconferencing today from New Delhi. The service would be extended to other states in phased manner.

The technology adopted for MMOS is simple. The customer will have to visit his nearest post office and furnish cell number, name, address and other information of the sender and receiver. Once the customer deposits the amount to be sent, a coded SMS is immediately sent by the postal department to sender and receiver.

The recipient can now collect the money from nearest post office by furnishing the received code and identity proof. A customer can transfer Rs 5,000 at a time on payment of 5 per cent service charge.

To start with, the service would be available in Patna's GPO and Bankipore, Patna City, Gulzarbagh, Kadamkuan, Patna secretariat, Danapur, Lohia Nagar, Mahendru and Rajendra Nagar post offices.

The apparent reason behind priority to Bihar and Punjab for the launch of MMOS is the fact that Punjab sends the highest number of money orders while Bihar receives the highest number of money orders in the country every year.