14 banks selected for facilitating government payments

 As part of facilitating payments to the government through banks (instead of depending on treasuries), it has shortlisted 14 banks. With effect from February 1, all payments received at the field offices of various government departments - including village offices, taluka offices, and sub-registrar offices - can be remitted to any branch of the banks that have been short-listed. Till date, government offices had to remit the money at the nearest branch of treasury or treasury branches of three banks.

The order issued by finance department on Tuesday said that during the initial stage, the facility will be extended to the public who can remit money at the banks directly, instead of remitting the same at government offices.

The list of banks include State Bank of India, State Bank of Travancore, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Federal Bank, Union Bank of India and Andhra Bank.

The present system of money remittance had delayed the crediting of money in government accounts. The government wrote to the Reserve Bank seeking approval for linking the banks with the treasury, so that remittances can be made in any branch of these banks, to which RBI gave its approval.

The latest decision by the cabinet to introduce e-payment system at the sub-registrar offices will also bank on the new system, in which the public can make use of their internet banking facility to make remittances at sub-registrar offices.

At present, the five sub-registrar offices - where e-payment facility is being introduced on a pilot basis - have already opened the internet banking payment option to the general public. The cabinet, on Thursday, decided to implement e-payment in five sub-registrar offices in the capital to begin with, including Sasthamangalam, Pattom, Thiruvallam, Chalai and Nemom. The registration charges thus can be given online and it is expected to bring relief to those approaching the offices for document registration.

The e-payment system will be implemented in the remaining 311 sub-registrar offices over the next two months.

After being hit by the demonetisation exercise, the registrations department had liberalized the ways of remitting registration fee by facilitating payment through demand draft. In November alone, there was a drop of 26,000 compared to same period last year that resulted in a loss of Rs 55 crore to the exchequer.