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.

2 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.

3 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 )

4 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.(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 .

5 (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.(g)"Constitution" means the Constitution of India .(h)"ChiefAccountingAuthority"means "SecretaryoftheDepartment/Ministry with overall control of the accounting functionsof the Department.

6 (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.

7 (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.(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.

8 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.

9 (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. 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.

10 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.