SB Order No. 31/2021 F. No. FS-32/1/2021-FS-DOP Govt. of India Ministry of Communications Department of Posts (F.S. Division)
To
All Heads of Circles / Regions
Dak Bhawan, New Delhi- 110001
Dated 18.10.2021
Subject: Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for dealing with cases of amalgamation of PPF Accounts — Reg.
Madam / Sir,
Whenever any depositor has opened more than one PPF Accounts, the second and subsequent accounts opened are treated as irregular, as an individual can open only one single account under PPF Scheme.
2. In such cases, considering the requests of the PPF subscribers, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance regularizes such irregular accounts/deposits by amalgamating more than one PPF accounts into one account, in relaxation of rules.
3. On receipt of the concurrence of Ministry of Finance for amalgamation of more than one PPF accounts, which were opened irregularly, the Post Offices shall follow the Standard Operating Procedure which is attached herewith, for amalgamation of accounts.
4. If there is any outstanding loan in any of the PPF account to be merged, the depositor shall be requested to repay the entire outstanding loan amount along with the interest. That is, if there is any PPF loan account, it should be closed before the amalgamation of accounts is done.
5. During the process of amalgamation, the interest calculation is required to be done manually by the Head Post Offices. The interest calculation shall be done by the Post Office Counter Officials and verified and authorized by Supervisor / In-Charge, SBCO.
6. This is issued with the approval of Competent Authority.
Encl Standard Operating Procedure
(T JAYAN)
Assistant Director (SB-I)
Copy to--
1. Sr. PPS to Secretary (Posts)
2. PS to Director General Postal Services.
3. PPS/PS to Addl. DG l Co-ordination) / Member (Banking) / Member (O) / Member (P)
Member (Planning & HRD) / Member (PLI) / Member (Tech)
/ AS & FA
4. Addl. Director General, APS, New Delhi
s. Chief General Manager, BD Directorate / Parcel Directorate / PLI
Directorate
6. Sr. Deputy Director General (Vig) & CVO) / Sr. Deputy Director General (PAF)
7. Director, RAKNPA / CGM, CEPT / Directors of all PTCs
8. Director General P & T (Audit), Civil Lines, New Delhi
9. Secretary, Postal Services Board/ All Deputy Directors General
10. All General Managers (Finance) / Directors Postal Accounts / DDAP
11. Chief Engineer (Civil), Postal Directorate
12. All recognized Federations / Unions / Associations
13. The Under Secretary, MOF (DEA), NS-II Section, North Block, New Delhi.
14. The Joint Director & HOD, National Savings Institute, I CCW Building, 4
Deendayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002
15. GM, CEPT, Mysuru - for uploading the order on the India Post website. l6. Guard File
(T C AYAN)
Asst. Dj or (SB-I)
STANDARDOPERATINGPROCEDURE
Page 1 of 7
FOR AMALGAMATION OF MORE THAN ONE PPF AGGOUNT HELD BY A DEPOSITOR
When more than one PPP account are held by an individual with one or more operating agencies (Operating agencies means Department of Posts and Banks) against the provisions in PPF Rules, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance in relaxation of rules issues orders for amalgamation of the accounts of PPF subscribers, for regularization of irregular deposits / accounts. In such cases, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed by the operating agencies has been issued by DEA, MoF in OM No. 2/2/2020 NS dated 25.02.2021 and the procedure is as follows.
a). Where the deposits made in both the accounts taken together are within in the prescribed deposit ceiling, as applicable to the account from time to time, shall be allowed to be amalgamated and the account holder will be given an option to retain the account of his choice. The PPF accounts in the same operating agency could easily be amalgamated at the level of operating agency by adopting the procedure of transfer of the PPF account.
The amalgamation of PPF accounts in different operating agency requires interaction between both the operating agencies. In such cases, the depositor will submit the request for amalgamation to the accounts office (Accounts office means Post Office or Bank) where he intended to retain the account, along with photocopy of the passbook /
statement of account. Thereafter, the accounts office will forward the case to other accounts office (where the account stands which is to be merged) and request to verify / send the details of annual subscriptions of all the financial years. The accounts office will then work out the annual subscriptions deposited by the account holder in all the PPF accounts keeping in view the prescribed deposit ceiling under PPF scheme
declared / decided by the Government from time to time. On confirming subscriptions do not breach prescribed deposits ceiling of any of the financial year, the accounts office will request the other accounts office to close the account and transfer the balances in the account keeping in view the relevant provision of the PPF Scheme. The
date of opening of the retained account shall be deemed as the actual opening of the account for the calculation of maturity and other purposes. Date of actual transfer / credit of balance in the account which is to be retained, shall be deemed to be the date of deposit for the purpose of loan / withdrawal etc.
b). Where the deposits made in both the accounts taken together are in excess of the prescribed deposit ceiling, applicable from time to time, the excess amount breaching the limit will be refunded to the subscriber from the account to be amalgamated without any interest. The accounts office will adjust the interest entry before transferring the balance to the account office, where the account stands intended to be retained. The date of opening of the
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
retained account shall be deemed as the actual opening of the account for the calculation of maturity and other purposes. Date of actual transfer / credit of balance in the account which is to be retained, shall be deemed to be the date of deposit for the purpose of loan / withdrawal etc.
2. When a PPF depositor submits request to retain his account with Post Office, the following procedure shall be followed by the Head Post Offices after ensuring that the amalgamation has been ordered / concurred by Ministry of Finance.
(I). Procedure for amalgamation if one account is operated at Post Office (PO) and another one is operated at Bank and Customer wants to continue the account at PO.
1. The bank will issue the cheque along with details of transactions in the account standing at Bank. Cheque received from Bank is to be lodged in PPF Transit Account
(SOLID+0322).
2. If the PO account stands at any Sub Post Office, the Sub Post Office shall send the passbook and the AOF of the account, along with the copy of the memo / order of concurrence for amalgamation and the account shall be transferred to the HO SOL without levying any transfer fee. Then, it shall be closed as 'Transfer out to Bank'.
a. During closure in HCAAC menu, SOL user haa to aelect the value NO for the field 'Apply Interest till Date'
b. Closure should be done in transfer mode and amount is to be credited to PPFtransit account (SOLID+0322).
3. Transactions in PO account and the transactions in Bank account are to be entered in chronological (date wise) order in excel sheet provided for PPF TRANSFER-IN accounts.
a. If sum of deposits in any of the Financial Year (FY) exceeds the prescribed limit for that FY, then transactions / amount beyond the limit should be excluded. Maximum
amount of subscriptions in PPF allowed for each FY is as follows.
Date of Revision of Subscription Minimum in Rs. Maximum in Ra.
16 05 1968 100 15000
01-08- 1972 100 20000
09 03- 1979 100 30000
16 03 1983 100 40000
23 06 1986 100 60000
15-11-2002 500 70000
01-12-2011 500 100000
13 08 2014 500 150000
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
Note 1: Chronological order means, for example, 5 transactions done in PO,
2 transactions done in Bank and then
3 transactions in PO if the total deposit amount limit exceeds from the second transaction done at Bank, last
4 transactions should be excluded for that financial year, subject to the deposit of maximum allowed amount.
Note 2: A fresh calculation sheet has to be prepared along with the transactions which
are to be uploaded in the new account (amalgamated) to be opened. Interest for each financial year has to be calculated manually by the Head Post Office. The interest for each year should be got verified by the Supervisor / In-Charge, SBCO.
b. Subscription paid in excess by the Depositor is to be noted down date wise and
interest paid/credited on the excess amount should be calculated for each financial year.
c. Interest (revised interest calculated) entry with date as 31/03 should be
entered for all FYs starting from the FY of account opening till the previous FY.
d. Financial year end indicator field for interest tranaactions alone ahould be Y.
e. If there are any transactions made in current FY, those transactions should also be
entered in the excel sheet.
4. PPF account is to be opened as TRANSFER-IN account with original account opening
date of the account being retained and the corresponding maturity date.
5. Text file created from the above excel file to be uploaded as per
existing procedure prescribed for transfer in accounts.
Note' This upload will ensure that withdrawal limits & loan eligibility are properly
available in the custom tables.
6. Excess subscription paid should be refunded to the customer. Amount to be
refunded to the customer should be transferred from Office Account
SOLID+0322 to Office Account SOLID+0340 using CXFER menu and the payment of
excess deposit shall be paid to the Depositor by cheque only.
7. Residual amount (excess interest) should be transferred from 0322 to PPF
Interest Account 0393.
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
8. Counter PA shall update the passbooks of the closed PPF accounts and AOF of the
closed PPF account(s) with remark “Account Closed for amalgamation of Accounts No.
and in accordance with the Memo / Order
No. dated ” at the end of the last
transactions under the signature of the Postmaster and with remarks “Account closed” on all
unused pages of Passbooks in red ink or by means of a rubber stamp.
9. A fresh AOF shall be obtained from the Depositor and a fresh passbook for the PPF
account opened on amalgamation shall be issued to the Depositor and a remark “Account
opened on amalgamation of Accounts No. and
in accordance with the Memo / Order No.
dated ” shall be made in the backside of the first
page of the passbook and on the fresh AOF, under the signature of Postmaster. The fresh
AOF shall be filed in the guard file along with the AOF of closed account(s).
10. If the retained account stands any Sub Post Office under HO, the amalgamated new
account shall be transferred to the Sub Post Office where the retained account
existed, without levying any transfer fee and the AOF(s) along with the passbooks
(closed account(s) and fresh passbook of the amalgamated account) shall be sent to the
Sub Post Office. The Sub Post Office shall file the AOF(s) in the guard file and deliver the
passbooks to the Depositor.
(II). Procedure for amalgamation if both or all the accounts are operated either
at same Post Ohice (PO) or at different Post Offices and Customer wants to continue the account
at any one Post Ohice.
1. Customer has to present his request at the Post Office where he wants
to continue his account, if both the accounts are maintained in different POs. E.g.
SOL1 (PO- 1) & SOL2 (PO 2).
2. If SOL1 or SOL2 or both, happen to be Sub Post Office, the Sub Post Office
where the Depositor has submitted request to retain his account shall forward the
passbooks with AOF(s) and request, to its HO and the account(s) shall be transferred
to HO SOL without levying any transfer fee.
Note: Now, both the PPF accounts shall be available at same PO viz. HO SOL.
3. Both the PPF accounts in HO SOL should be closed, as 'Transfer out to Bank'.
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
Page 5 of 7
a. During closure in HCAAC menu, SOL user has to select the value NO for the field ‘Apply
Interest till Date’.
b. Closure should be done in transfer mode and amount is to be credited in PPF Transit Account
i.e. SOLID+0322.
4. Transactions in both the PPF accounts are to be entered in chronological (date
wise) order in excel sheet provided for PPF Transfer in accounts.
5. The procedures prescribed in paras 2 (I) (3) (a) to (e), 4 to 10 shall be followed.
Note' In both the above cases I & II, the total amount credited in office account
SOLID+0322 (i.e. amount received from bank & amount credited due to closure of account
which is to be amalgamated) should tally with the totals of amount
transferred to the new amalgamated account opened, excess deposit amount refunded
to the customer (i.e. amount transferred to office account SOLID+0340) and the excess
interest amount transferred to the office account SOLID+0393. This shall be checked by the
Supervisor / In Charge SBCO.
3. Illustration
Assume that a depositor is having two PPF accounts with the transactions as detailed below.
Interest is assumed as 7% per annum and Maximum allowed amount is assumed as
Rs. 1,50,000/ .
a). Account 1 opened on 04.04.2018
Date Transaction Amount in Rs. Balance in Rs. 04 04 2018
Deposit 150000 150000
31 03 2019 Interest 10500 160500
03 04 2019 Deposit 120000 280500
31 03 2020 Interest 19635 300135
03-04-2020 Deposit 140000 440135
31-03-2021 Interest 30809 470944
05-04-2021 Deposit 100000 570944
b). Account 2 opened on 04.04.2020
Date Transaction Amount in Ra. Balance in Ra.
04 04 2020 Deposit 20000 20000
05-10-2020 Deposit 40000 60000
31 03 2021 Interest 2800 62800
09-04-2021 Deposit 10000 72800
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
Page 6 of 7
2. If the amalgamation of the above two accounts are ordered, the annual
subscriptions made in both the accounts are to be worked as follows.
Date
04 04 2018
31 03 2019
03-04-2019
31-03-2020
03 04 2020
04 04 2020
05 10 2020
31 03 2021
05-04-2021
09 04-2021
Transaction
Deposit Interest Deposit Interest Deposit Deposit Deposit Interest Deposit Deposit
Total
Amount (Rs.) in Account 1
150000
10500
120000
19635
140000
30809
100000
570944
Amount (Ra.) in Account 2
20000
40000
2800
10000
72800
Total Deposit in FY
concerned
150000
120000
200000
Excess Deposit to be refunded
10000
40000
50000
Excess Interest to be deducted
700
1400
2100
3. If the depositor requests to retain the Account 1, the new amalgamated account will be opened with the date of opening as 04.04.2018 and the following ledger
entries will be uploaded.
Date Transaction Particulars Amount in Ra. Balance in Rs.
04 04 2018 Normal Contribution 150000
150000
31 03 2019 Interest for 2018- 19 10500
160500
02 04 2019 Normal Contribution 120000
280500
31 03 2020 Interest for 2019 20 19635
300135
03 04 2020 Normal Contribution 140000
440135
04-04 2020 Normal Contribution 10000
450135
31 03 2021 Interest for 2020 21 31509
481644
05-04 2021 Normal Contribution 100000
581644
09 04 2021 Normal Contribution 10000
591644
Total 591644
4. If the depositor requests to retain the Account 2, the new amalgamated
account will be opened with the date of opening as 04.04.2020 and the following ledger
entries will be uploaded.
Date Transaction Particulars Amount in Ra. Balance in Ra.
04 04-2020 Balance Transferred 440135 440135
04-04-2020 Normal Contribution 10000 450135
31-03-2021 Interest for 2020 21 31509
481644
05-04-2021 Normal Contribution 100000 581644
09-04-2021 Normal Contribution 10000 591644
Total 591644
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
5. The transactions shall be balanced in Finacle as follows.
Details Amount in Ra. Remarks
Credit in Office Account SOLID+0322
Debit in Office Account SOLID+0322
Credit in Office Account SOLID+0340 by debiting Office Account SOLID+0322 Credit in Office
Account SOLID+0393 by debiting Office Account SOLID+0322 Balance in Account SOLID+0322
SOP for Amalgamation of PPF Accounts
643744
591644
50000
2100
0
Closure proceeds of both the accounts
Funding in amalgamated Account
Excess Deposit Amount to be paid to the Depositor by Cheque
Excess interest is credited in Govt. Account
