POSTAL ACCOUNTS MANUAL - India Post

1 POSTAL ACCOUNTS MANUAL VOLUME I consists of following items of work: General, POSTAL ACCOUNTS , Funds, Pension and Internal checkPREFACEC onsequent upon departmentalisation of POSTAL ACCOUNTS from 1stApril1976, the need for bringing out a comprehensive MANUAL to serve as a guide forPostal Accounting work has been keenly POSTAL ACCOUNTS MANUAL since brought out contains the detailedprinciples and instructions, mainly of a procedural nature, regarding upkeep andsubmission of many ACCOUNTS returns and checks to be exercised on varioustransactions of the Department of Posts. It provides the guidelines to the CirclePostal ACCOUNTS Offices in carrying out their day- to -day MANUAL consists of two volumes dealing with the following items ofwork: -Volume I General, POSTAL ACCOUNTS , Funds, Pension and InternalchecksVolume II Agency FunctionsThisis the first edition of the POSTAL ACCOUNTS MANUAL Volume I in dig-let form and it supersedes the corresponding provisions laid down in P&TAccounts MANUAL Volume I and Volume II and POSTAL ACCOUNTS MANUAL Vol.

2 I(Provisional & Cyclostyled issue). The checks prescribed in the P&T AuditManual Volume I to the extent they are applicable to the POSTAL transactionshave also been incorporated in this and omissions, if any, may be brought to the notice of theDirector General POSTAL Services (CMRcell). Amendments to this MANUAL willbe issued by the Director General POSTAL Services (CMR Cell) to whom allsuggestions for additions and alterations should be addressed with the PostalAccounts Wing of the of PostsDirector General, POSTAL IDEFINITIONS AND GENERAL SYSTEMS OF this volume, unless the context otherwise requires, thefollowing expressions have the meaning hereby respectively assigned to them,that is to say-(a) Accounting Authority means the Director of ACCOUNTS ( POSTAL ) whoexercises accounting functions.(b) ACCOUNTS Officer means any officer subordinate to, or under thesuperintendence of Chief Accounting Authority or the AccountingAuthority who exercise accounting functions.

3 (c) Audit Officer means any officer subordinate to, or under thesuperintendence of the Controller and Auditor General who exerciseaudit functions.(d) The Bank means the Reserve Bank of India or any of its offices orbranches, any branch of the State Bank of Indiaacting as the agent ofthe Reserve Bank of India in accordance with the provisions of theReserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934) and any branch of asubsidiary Bank as defined in Section 2 of the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (38 of1959) or any other agencyappointed by the Reserve Bank of India .(e) Branch Audit Office or Audit Office means the office of theDirector of Audit/Audit Officer In- charge in independent charge ofone of the POSTAL and Telegraphs Audit (f)"BranchPostal ACCOUNTS Office" or " POSTAL ACCOUNTS Office" meansthe office of the Director of ACCOUNTS ( POSTAL ) in- charge of the PostalAccounts Office of the Circle.

4 (g)"Constitution" means the Constitution of India .(h)"ChiefAccountingAuthority"means "SecretaryoftheDepartment/Ministry with overall control of the accounting functionsof the Department.(i)"Comptroller and Auditor General" means the Comptroller andAuditor General of India .(j) or Controller General of ACCOUNTS means Controller ofAccounts inthe Ministry of Finance (Deptt. of Expr.) who inter- alia isresponsible for establishing and maintaining a technically soundpayment- cum-Accounting system in the departmentalised accountsoffices and for prescribing & rules for regulating the custody, paymentinto and withdrawal of money from Govt. account .(k)"Director General" means Director General, POSTAL Services.(l)"Director of Audit" means Director of Audit, P&T.(m)"Department" means "Department of Posts"(n)"Debt heads means the heads of account to which transactionsrelating to Debt, Deposits, sinking funds, Advances and Suspenseaccounts are recorded.

5 (o)"Government" means either Central or State Government or both asthe context may imply.(p)"Government account " means the account relating to the consolidatedfund or the Public account ."Consolidated Fund" means the consolidated Fund of India as referredto in clause (1) of Article 266 of the Constitution. Public account " means the3public account of India referred to in clause (2) of Article 266 of theConstitution."Contingency Fund" means the contingency Fund of India establishedunder the Contingency Fund of India Act, 1950 (49 to 195) in pursuance ofArticle 267(1) of the Constitution.(q)"Head quarter office" means office of the Director General, Postalservices.(r)"Remittance" heads refer to heads of account to which transactionsrelating to remittance business are taken.(s)"State" means any state specified in the first schedule to theconstitution.(t)"Treasury" includes a sub Outlines of thesy stem of generaloutlines of the system ofaccounts of the CentralGovernment laid down in Chapter 3 of the account Code, Volume I, applymutatis mutandis to the ACCOUNTS of the Department of Posts.

6 The specialfeatures of the POSTAL ACCOUNTS are described in the following Director General is responsible that suitable ACCOUNTS aremaintained by the Officers subordinate to him in the prescribed forms of initialor other ACCOUNTS or of ACCOUNTS of the POSTAL Wing are prepared and their resultsexhibited, as far as practicable, according to the practice and usage ofCommercial Book keeping..The important aspects in the system of ACCOUNTS ofthe Department, made from time to time with this object, are:-(i)The Institution of a Capital account to exhibit the value of the assets.(ii)The opening in the Government ledger, of a head to exhibit the true orcommercial profit or loss on the working of the Department. As a corollary to4this decision, it has been ruled that the Department should bear all chargesincurred on its account in other Departments and should be entitled to receivecredit for all services rendered by it to other realisations and working expenses other than interestcharges of the Department are booked under the major heads 1201- PostalReceipts and 3201- POSTAL Services respectively.

7 These major heads are divi d edin to a series of Sub Major Heads and subdivided into a number of Minor, Sub &Detailed general plan of the Revenue ACCOUNTS of the Department is designedto enable the exhibition of the profit or loss separately under the POSTAL large amount of Expenses of Department relates jointly to more than onebranch. The arrangement of the account is such that receipts or expenditurerelating to more than one branch are isolated for subsequent apportionmentbetween the branches and loss finances of the Department form part of the General financesof the Central Government. The Department has to meet all the liabilities fromits own revenues. The surplus or deficit in the working of the Departmentisappropriated to and from the Posts and Telegraphs Capital Reserve Profit and Loss account of the Departmentis a real account insidethe,Government ACCOUNTS and includes the inter branch Profit and Loss account is prepared annually from the net Profit andLoss account in the Ledger (Vide Paragraph ) after the final closure of shows the final results of the working of the Department during theyear.

8 The Profit and Loss account so exhibited in the finance and RevenueAccounts of the year and also in the financial review of the year prepared bythe Director- General, for inclusion in the Appropriation Offices- Each Head Post Office forms an accounting unitresponsibly for submitting to the Circle ACCOUNTS Offices an account of all itsreceipts and disbursements (including the account of all its receipts anddisbursements of offices subordinate to it).. The primary ACCOUNTS maintainedby the Head Post Offices are:-(a) The treasurer 's Cash Book.(b) The Head Office Summary.(c) The Head Office Cash the 1st day of each month,the Cash account of the HeadOffice for the previous month is submitted to the Circle ACCOUNTS Officeconcerned in the prescribed Form (ACG. 5) duly classified under certain broadheadings. The entries are taken from the Head Office Cash Book.

9 The CashAccount is signed by the Postmaster and is accompanied by a Cash BalanceReport as well as vouchers and addition to themonthly Cash account and Cash balanceReport, the Head Office sends daily, weekly, fortnightly ormonthly, as the casemay be, tothe Circle ACCOUNTS Office concerned, journals of Money Orders,Saving Bank includingCumulative Time Deposits, Recurring deposits, TimeDeposits etc. and Post Office Certificates and transaction of its own and its Suband Branch Offices, supported by Mail Head Record Office which forms an accounting unit in theRailway Mail Service is responsible for submitting to the Circle AccountsOffice concerned a monthly Cash account in Form ACG-36. The Primaryaccountmaintained in the Office is theCash Book in which transactions withthe, local Head Post Office are recorded. The Circle ACCOUNTS Officeincorporatesthe accountsin Appendix-D to the Classified Abstract of the Head6 Post Office concerned Each Head RecordClerk of a Sorting and Air MailDivision is responsible for submitting tothe Circle ACCOUNTS -Office monthlyCash account in Harm ACG-36 along-withthe list ofAccount Returns in FormACG-31and necessary schedule of receipts, payments andbill and deductionsfor the 1stperiod and 2ndperiod separately.

10 These transactions are taken into theCircle Detail Book through an Appendix "D" to the Classified Abstract of theHead Post Office with which the Record Office is in of ACCOUNTS inCircle POSTAL ACCOUNTS ACCOUNTS received in the Circle POSTAL ACCOUNTS Offices, arescrutinised to see that each item of receipt and payment has been correctlyclassified to the proper head of account . This process is carried out in greatdetail, and eventually the monthly ACCOUNTS are compiled into consolidatedmonthly ACCOUNTS for each POSTAL Circle and the various stages of compilationare described in the next monthly transactions of a Head Post Office including RailwayMail Service Division are posted into a Classified Abstract which brings out themonthly totals of receipts andp ayments of all kinds, under each detailed andminor head of compilation of the ACCOUNTS is made in the detail Book whichis maintained for each Circle.