Postal Department posts revenue of Rs 15,296 crore for FY26, up 16 pc from a year ago

The Department of Post has clocked revenue of Rs 15,296 crore for financial year 2025-26, a 16 per cent growth year-on-year, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Monday. Announcing the revenue scorecard after the Postal Department's annual business meet here, Scindia said the year has been ''historic'' for the department. He said that with sharp focus on deepening the reach of services, acquisition of customers and six sigma service level agreements with customers, the department is aiming for higher growth for FY27. ''...so it has been a very historic year for the Department of Post...as you are aware, we've also come out with three new products. We are now looking at increasing the penetration of many of our services, acquiring new customers, performing against very strict 'Six Sigma' service level agreements with all our clients to post an even greater growth rate over the next fiscal year,'' Scindia told reporters. The revenue for fiscal 2024-25 stood at Rs 13,218 crore, and in 2025-26, the topline number increased to 15,296 crore. ''That is a growth rate of 16 per cent. We have hit upwards of 15 per cent growth rate in probably long time in this department,'' the minister said. Eight circles out of 23 have achieved greater than 90 per cent of their target, 14 circles met between 80 to 90 per cent of their target, and only one circle is less than 80 per cent of their target, Scindia said that the performance underlines ''a major transformation'' in the way the Department operates as a service driven organisation. Among the verticals, parcels grew to Rs 1,133 crore in FY26, about 69 per cent higher than the last fiscal, driven by stellar show from Jharkhand, Telangana, and Gujarat. ''On mails, which is the second vertical, from Rs 2,396 crore revenue in FY 24-25 we've now grown to Rs 3,202 crore, which is a growth of 34 per cent,'' Scindia said, adding that growth was driven by Rajasthan, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. The international mail category faced ''major problems'' on account of global disruptions. Citizen centric services grew to Rs 864 crore revenue in FY26, growing 70 per cent over previous fiscal. Post office Savings Bank posted Rs 7,756 crore in just-concluded fiscal, growing at 13 per cent, the minister said and added postal life insurance and rural postal life insurance has grown to Rs 1,458 crore, a growth of 25 per cent year-on-year. Speaking to reporters, Vandita Kaul, Secretary, Department of Posts said that the ''gap'' between expenditure (excluding pensions) and revenue has narrowed in FY26 by about Rs 1,500 crore, even as the Department has maintained a sharp focus and commitment to universal service obligation. Revenue expenditure with pension for FY 2025-26 came to about Rs 38,631 crore. Kaul said about one-third of the Postal Department's overall expenditure is towards pension. Excluding pensions, she said, the expenditure stands at Rs 26,559 crore, and given that revenue receipts are at Rs 15,296 crore in FY26, the deficit/gap is at about Rs 11,000 crore. The deficit was about Rs 12,500 crore in the previous fiscal. Over the next five years, the Department is looking to bridge the gap between income and expenditure ''fully'', she asserted. ''Government is clear that, unlike a lot of other postal networks around the world, there is a need to increase the outreach here, and so over the last 4 years, we have increased the network by about 11,000 post offices in rural areas, with a large increase being in North Eastern region,'' she said adding this took the total network of post offices to 1,64,999.