Scindia aims to make postal dept profitable by 2029, seeks funds from FM

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has sought funds from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the Department of Posts to make it profitable by 2029, according to official sources.

The Department of Posts (DoP) is working on plans to leap as a logistics company.

“Minister (Jyotiraditya Scindia) met with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam in New Delhi to discuss India Post’s path to profitability. He and his team at the Department of Posts presented their capital expenditure demands to the FM on Friday to make the Department a profit centre by 2029,” an official source said.

The source did not share the capex sought by the postal department to chalk out its path to profitability.

Another official said the postal department officers presented their capital expenditure demands to make India Post a profit-making logistics company with Scindia emphasising that the department aims to achieve higher customer acquisition, customer retention and operational efficiency.

“He also talked about the ongoing Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) exercise which will benefit a lot from the fund infusion from the Finance Ministry. He shared that the BPR exercise will also focus on launching more attractive B2B and B2C services,” the source said.

In the meeting, Scindia shared that the capital expenditure will focus on infrastructure development and renovation of Post Offices as well as staff housing quarters across the nation.

The minister said that the postal department will work towards automation of processes to make them efficient and future-ready.

This is the second stint of Scindia at the Communications Ministry.

He was a Minister of State under the UPA government in 2007 when he steered Project Arrow for modernization of the postal department and helped Dak Sewaks get office equipment. Scindia in six months of taking charge of the department in 2024, asked the India Post team to get exposure to international best practices and come up with innovative strategies for the department.

Scindia during the meeting with Sitharaman assured that the postal department will be globally competitive by 2028-29.

Scindia said that he believes in India Post’s potential to increase market share for most of its products, increase revenue and compete in the industry in the next 5-7 years.

He shared that the focus will be on expanding the market share in mail and parcel verticals.