Franking machine short notes

 

FRANKING MACHINE

ð  Franking machine license is issued by head of the division.

ð  The Franking Machine must be obtained by the licensee only from the firm authorized by the Director-General of Posts.

ð  A postal franking machine is a stamping machine intended to stamp impression of dies of approval design on private and official postal articles in payment of postage and postal fees.

ð  A postal franking machine is a stamping machine intended to stamp impressions of dies of approved design on private and official postal articles in payment of postage and postal fees

ð  Any customer having an registered account on India Post site, can use Franking services on India Post Site.  Alternatively Franking Services are available at selected Post Offices also.

ð India Post Site provides various services to the Franking machine users (FMU) through which they can very easily manage there Franking Machine Usage.

ð  India Post site provides you two possible ways for creating and managing your account

01. If you are a new Franking Machine User you can register yourself on India Post Site and can then Make a New License Fee Deposit through your registered Account to get your Franking Customer ID.

02. If you already posses a valid Franking Customer ID in India Post you can register yourself on India Post Site and can link you Franking customer ID to your registered Account to avail the Franking Services on India Post Site.

ð  Fee for applying for a new franking licence is RS 375/- per five years

ð  India Post Provides three categories for the Franking machine Licenses

01. Individual

02. Commercial

03. Departmental

ð  You can apply for Individual and Commercial licenses through you registered account on India Post Site.  For Departmental License you have to visit the Post Office Counter.

ð  Any Franking machine license is valid for 5 years after date of License generation request. After 5 years License will automatically get expire. To renew your license you have to raise renew request for particular license and pay renewal fee for the same.

ð  You can renew your license anytime before 11 months from date of expiry till license expiry date with renewal fee of Rs 375/-

ð  Renewal Fee for the expired license is Rs 475/-.   (failure to  renewal expiry of license additional Rs 100/-).

ð  You have to make a first recharge of minimum Rs 2000/- . Afterwards you can make subsequent recharges as per your business requirement starting from Rs 1000 /-.

ð  Impression Franks consists of Two Dies

01. Value Die and 02. Licence Die..

ð  Machine franked articles can be posted at not more than two offices specified by SPO in the licence,  Window Delivery Ticket for identification of the licensee’s representative.

ð  Impression should be of bright red colour, There may be more than one impression of the value die but only one of the licence die on each article.

ð  Machine franked articles posted in letter boxes shall be treated as unpaid articles.

ð  The post office will remove the license die from the machine before it is sent for repairs.

ð  The licensee will pay in not be less than Rs. 1000 or more than Rs. 50,000. A rebate @ 3 per cent will be allowed.

ð  Meter of the machine will in all cases be rest at the post office.

ð  For the purpose of the accounts, two registers shall be maintained, one by the post office and other by the user.

ð  where the Daily Docket Register is maintained, for removing the  licence die from the machine before it is sent for repairs. The re-setting of the meter after repairs will be done at the post office.

ð   Any change of location of the machine, except in cases of repairs, shall be notified to the Head of the Division and the office of posting.

ð  All stamp impressions for the purpose of pre-payment of postage must be made as far as possible on the right hand top corner of the address side of the postal article.

ð  Not more than one cut-out label bearing the frank impression or impressions in full payment of postage and other fees will be permitted to be affixed on such postal articles.

ð  The cut-out label pasted to the postal articles on the right hand side above the name and address of the addressee. The cut-out labels should have the name and address of the sender printed on the left hand side.

ð  Franking will be allowed upto any amount. Impressions which must be of a bright red colour.

ð   Each consignment shall be accompanied by the Window Ticket for the identification of the licensee’s servant or representative.

ð  No advertisement device shall appear on the stamping die

ð  In the event of a breach of any condition licence will be forthwith cancelled by the Head of the Postal

ð  A licence for the use of Franking Machine on hire from Department of Posts by the Government Offices will be granted by the Postmaster General concerned on the Ministry/Office making an application for the same.

ð  The licencing authority shall maintain the following records:

o   01. Franking Machine Register regarding Postings.

o   02. Franking Machine Record Book.

ð    The main Post Office shall maintain the following records

o   01. Register showing list of licences of Franking Machines authorized to post their articles in the post office.

o   02. The register                showing payments of advance rentals.  The register will have separate page allotted to each licensee.

o   03. Franking Machine record book.

o   04. Franking Machine ledger.

ð  The licensee will pay in advance the amount of annual rental. This sum must not be less than Rs. 100/- or more than Rs.9900/-.

ð   The payments including those of advance rentals should be either by cheque or by bank draft.

ð  Franking will be allowed upto any amount.

ð  The franked articles bearing previous or later dates or posted in the letter box will be treated as un-paid.

ð  The register repairs and the job card are to be preserved for 2 years.

ð  Refund will be made for any impression made in error (less a deduction of 5 per cent on face value).

ð  Rebate 3% given on previous consumption if amount exceeds Rs.1000/-.

ð  The machine has two meters

1. Ascending

2. Descending

ð  The machine will be reset not below the officer of Public relation inspector.

 

          REMOTELY MANAGED FRANKING MACHINE (RMFM):-

                                 India Post has decided to introduce Remotely Managed Franking Machines in place of Electronic Franking Machines with effect from 16.8.2010 based on new technology with security features like generation of 2D barcode with frank impression and elimination of human intervention for uploading the credit in franking machines.

 

Salient Features of the RMFS is as follows:-

 

ð  Only India Specific models of Franking Machines with inkjet printing technology approved by the Directorate will be used.

ð  No requirement of mechanical seals.

ð  Amount for uploading the credit is to be credited at SBI or at Post office through e Payment.

ð  The machine is to be connected to the central server three times every day for exchanging information on funds deposited, funds downloaded and uploading of reports etc.,

ð  The credit will be uploaded in Franking machine on its dialling to RMFs server for the purpose. Meters will be set/re-set automatically.

ð  Franking impression shall be in blue colour and will indicate class of article, pincode, authentication code, date of frank, mail item number, licence identified number, frank value and 2D barcode.

ð  Machine Franked articles of RMFS should be posted only in one office i.e. Designated Post office/Designated Mail Office/ Designated Field Post Office, not below the status of Double-handed office. In case one wants to post articles in more than one office,he will have to use different Franking Machine for different offices.

ð  Digifrank plus is the name given by India post to the new facility of franking based RMFS.

ð  2D barcode will have important information and the barcode can be scanned to check the genuineness of the frank impression.

ð  Migration plan for phasing out the electronic FM is as follows:-

01. The scheme will be introduced with effect from 16.8.2010.

02. Licences of all FMs which are older than 5 years will not be renewed.

03. Licences of Electronic FM which are less than 5 years old may be renewed till completion of period of 5 years.

04. No Electronic FM of old models shall not be allowed.

ELECTRONIC FRANKING MACHINE	REMOTELY MANAGED FRANKING MACHINE (RMFM)
Red colour	Blue colour
Value die and licence die	Combined single / 2D bar code
Manual credit process	Automatic credit process

 

 

FRANKING MACHINE LICENSE FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICES :-

ð  A license for the use of Franking Machine on hire from Department of Posts by the Government Offices will be granted by the Postmaster General.

ð  The hiring scheme of Franking Machines for Govt. Offices will be available at the places where postal machines repair organizations are available.

ð  The licensing authority shall specify in the license the two offices where the mails of the licensee will be accepted. One of the two specified offices shall be the main office and the status of that office should be Lower Selection Grade or above.

ð  Word ‘Service’ will be used in the license die to facilitate identification of such letters as official dak.

ð   Gazetted officer in charge of the dispatch section having the Franking Machine on the last working day of every week to see that they are being properly maintained. He will furnish a certificate about meter reading as on the last working day of each month.

ð  The Post Office shall grant a receipt for any money paid by licensee in form ACG 67.

ð  Franking will be allowed upto any amount.

ð  Impressions must be of a bright Blue colour, clear and distinct otherwise the article is liable to be refused by the Post Office.

ð   The franked articles bearing previous or later dates or posted in the letter box will be treated as un-paid, while those tendered at any other PO will not be accepted. Articles bearing the frank of a date immediately preceding the date of presentation of the articles will, however, be accepted provided they bear also the impression of the licensed die of the date of presentation. Articles should be given for acceptance in separate bundles of fixed no. like 50 for each value of frank.

ð  The register repairs and the job card are to be preserved for 2 years and will be open to check by the authorized official of the Deptt. of Posts at any time.

ð  Refund will be made for any impression made in error (less a deduction of 5 per cent on face value) on surrendering the envelopes or wrappers provided that impression is legible and that the entire envelope or wrapper is produced and that the claim is preferred within one month of the date of first impression.

FAQs

1. What is Franking Machine?

A postal franking machine is a stamping machine intended to stamp impressions of dies of approved design on private and official postal articles in payment of postage and postal fees

2. Who can use Franking Services ?

Any customer having an registered account on IndiaPost site, can use Franking services on IndiaPost Site.Alternatively Franking Services are available at selected Post Offices also.

3. What services are available to the Franking Machine Users?

IndiaPost Site provides various services to the Franking machine users (FMU) throughwhich they can very easily manage there Franking Machine Usage.Services provided at IndiaPost Site is intended to give a personalised Account experience with the service as listed below :-
                1. Pay License fee for new/renewal of License
                2. Apply for new Franking Machine License
                3. Apply for renewal of Franking Machine License
                4. Apply for cancellation of License/Franking Machine
                5. Apply for change in address of Franking Machine
               6. Recharge Franking Machine License
               7. View the details of all your Franking Machine License
               8. Request to change the Rebate Processing Mode

4. How much money I have to pay to apply for new Franking Machine License ?

The Fee for applying for a New license is 375 INR.

5. How can I apply for a Franking Machine License?

To Apply for a New License you have to deposit fee for New License either at India Post Site by paying online through your registered Account or at Post Office counter, and then raise the license request for your franking Machine. To raise the License request at India Post Site you can login to your registered account and Goto : Home-->>Business Solutions-->> Franking Services -->>Franking Machine License Request

6. What are the different type of Franking Machine Licenses for which I can apply ?

India Post Provides three categories for the Franking machine Licenses
1)Individual
2)Commercial
3)Departmental
You can apply for Individual and Commercial licenses through you registered account on India Post Site. For Departmental License you have to visit the Post Office Counter

7. What is the activation/validation period for Franking Machine License?

Any Franking machine license is valid for 5 years after date of License generation request. After 5 years License will automatically get expire. To renew your license you have to raise renew request for particular license and pay renewal fee for the same.

 

8. What if my Franking Machine License has expired ?

When Franking machine license got expired, you have to raise a request for renewal of license. Prior to raising a request for renewal you have to pay the renewal fee for that particular license. India Post site provides you this service just a click away. To raise the request for License renewal and Fee Deposit at India Post site you can login to your registered account and Goto : Home-->>Business Solutions-->> Franking Services

9. What is the renewal fee for the expired License?

Renewal Fee for the expired license is  475 INR

10. When can I renew my Franking Machine license?

You can renew your license anytime before 11 months from date of expiry till license expiry date with renewal fee of 375

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