Shakeel Ahmed (second from right), Union minister of state for communication and information technology, with Harpreet Singh (extreme left), director of postal services, Bengal circle, S.K. Das, chief general manager of Bengal postal service, and Praveen Murthy (right), national sales manager of HDFC Bank, in Calcutta on Saturday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, June 16: India Post plans to set up a separate company for its life insurance products next year. At present, its Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) schemes do not come under the jurisdiction of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

“Next year we will come under IRDA’s purview, following which we will be able to sell our life insurance policies to all,” said Harpreet Singh, director (postal services), Bengal.

An investment committee has been set up to finalise fund managers for the insurance arm.

At present, India Post sells the PLI scheme to central and state government staff, defence personnel and bank employees. The postal department manages Rs 9,000 crore under PLI and Rs 3,500 crore under RPLI.

“We could neither launch more life insurance products nor sell the existing ones to all as these were outside the purview of the insurance regulator. From next year, we will launch schemes for the mass,” Singh said.

The postal department is also planning to hive off its banking business into a full-fledged bank, called the Post Bank of India.

“We are discussing the proposal with other ministries,” said Shakeel Ahmed, Union minister of state for communication and information technology.

The minister was present at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between India Post and HDFC Bank today.

India Post plans to enter the banking business, including credit disbursals, once the proposal gets the approval of the government and other regulators.

The department has over 1,55,000 post offices and more than 16.2 crore account holders. Deposits are in excess of Rs 37,55,000 crore.

However, when asked whether India Post will vertically split its mail and financial services, Ahmed said, “It’s too early to comment on that.”