PROCEDURE OF UPLOADING OF CREDIT IN THE MACHINE | SOP ON RMFS

CHAPTER 3.

PROCEDURE OF UPLOADING OF CREDIT IN THE MACHINE

1.(i) The Franking Machine User will pay in advance a sum representing the amount of advance postage for which he wishes the machine to be set / reset. The minimum advance payment will be Rs. 2000/- for first setting of the machine after issue of license. Minimum amount of advance payment for subsequent deposits for resetting of franking machine will be Rs. 1000/- (One thousand only) + multiple of Rs. 100/-.

(ii) The Franking Machine User may download the funds in multiples of Rs. 100/-.

2. Payment of amount for uploading the credits in franking machines may be

made at State Bank of India branches and Post Offices having e-Payment facility.

(i) Payment at SBI branches:

(a)The advance payment for uploading the credit in the franking machines i.e. setting/resetting of meters of the machines may be made by the Licensee only through electronic transfer of funds i.e. Internet Banking to SBI.

(b) The other modes of advance payments by cash, A/c payee cheque, Bank draft will be prescribed subsequently in consultation with SBI authorities. However when these modes of advance payments are allowed the Franking Machine User shall write in the “Pay to” column of the cheque DOP A/c xxxx and (License Identifier of the Franking Machine User in the format X123456”) in case of payment through cheques. The Franking Machine User will write at the back of the cheque particulars like the Licensee’s name, License Number and contact/ mobile number. This should be done well in advance in the case of payments through cheque as the instructions about receipt of payments shall be sent to the server of department of posts only after realisation of amount of cheque by the bank.

For cheque payments a Pay-in-slip specially designed by the Bank in consultation with DoP shall be used for deposits. The Bank shall capture the License Identifier, License Number and Name of the Franking Machine User who has deposited the amount as well as the amount deposited.

c) The Bank shall immediately update the DoP account with the funds received from the Licensee.

d) This information shall be compiled as ‘funds received’ file and shall be available at the Bank Server. The file would contain the list of License Identifiers with their License Number and Licensee’s name with respective amounts received

against them. The DoP server would dial Bank Server at a predetermined time (every day at 10.00 P.M.) and DoP Server would pick up/push the interface files needed through Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). The DoP Server shall verify the payments received in its account, cross check the entries made in regard of License Identifier and shall keep the file thus authenticated ready to be transferred to the respective OEM’s RMFS Server. The RMFS Server would dial the DoP Server at predetermined time intervals for reports upload and would pick up their respective ‘funds received (authenticated)’ files kept ready for it. The customer account in the RMFS server shall get updated accordingly with the respective amounts as per instructions in the downloaded file as and when FM dials into RMFS Server. License Identifier (Unique Number of FM) will be common field for RMFS.

(ii) Payment at Post Offices:

The payments for uploading of amounts may be accepted from the Franking Machine User using E-payment application.

The Department of Posts will be a biller at National level for acceptance of deposits for uploading of credits through E-payment. However no payments will be made to the biller i.e. DOP for collected amounts as this has already been accounted for in DoP’s account.

(a) The Post Offices having e-Payment facility may accept amount of advance payment from the Licensee in cash/Account payee cheque/Bank draft for uploading the credit in franking machines. The cheque/Bank draft will be in favor of the concerned Postmaster. In case of payment at sub post office cheque/draft will be in favour of Postmaster of its Accounts Office. The procedure prescribed for realization of amount of cheque received in other transactions will be followed in this case.

(b) FMU or his messenger will present cash /cheque/Bank draft alongwith Digifrank plus License Card and deposit form (Annexure U) duly filled in at the counter. The Counter Assistant will see that the amount shown in deposit slip agrees with amount tendered in cash/ cheque/Bank draft and other particulars viz Name & address of Licensee, License Identifier, CRN etc. have been filled.

(c) The Postal Assistant using E-payment application will scan the Digifrank plus License Card through the scanner and enter the amount of credit on the Epayment interface. Further operating procedure for E-payment will be followed.

(d) The amount collected will be shown under the heading ‘Revenue Realised in Cash on RMFS through E-payment’ in SO Account, SO Daily Account, HO Summary, SO Summary, HO Cash Book on receipt side. This will not be included in the amount of E-payment collected for other billers.

(e) A monthly schedule of ‘Revenue Realised in Cash on RMFS through Epayment’ will be sent to the Postal Accounts Office alongwith copy of Cash Account. This will be ensured by the Postmaster that the amount shown in the schedule tallies with the amount shown in the daily lists of revenue realized in cash on RMFS through E-payment.

At the end of the day credits data will be transmitted to E-payment Central Server as in case of any other E-payment transactions. From E-payment Central Server this data will be transmitted onwards to the DCR Server.

3. Franking Machine User would dial RMFS Server through a modem on his machine for obtaining credit in the Franking Machine after the stipulated period (one day for clearance of drafts and Internet Banking transactions, three days in case of cheques).

4. RMFS Server would verify the identity of machine, upload the cumulative Register Data (ascending register, descending register, control total, item counter etc.) from the Franking Machine on to the RMFS server.

5. RMFS Server would automatically check the current Register Data with the previous Data (the control total should be same as it was at the time of last reset). 

In case of any discrepancy the re-credit request will fail. The RMFS Server shall report any such incidents to the Department of Post Server by generating an error.

The DCR will look into the error and take appropriate steps for rectification.

6. The RMFS Server would check funds availability as per instructions received from the DoP Server and would download the required amount into the Franking Machine.

7. The RMFS Server would periodically dial the Department of Posts Central Resource server three times daily (0930-1000 hrs, 1330-1400 hrs and 1630-1700 hrs), on every working day and shall send report of all machines (list of License Identifiers) that would have dialed during the day, along with the details of funds downloaded. The following files would invariably be exchanged in each dialing.

List of Files to be Transferred from OEM's server to DoP Server :

• Acknowledgement file in respect of files received from DoP Server.
• Credit Download Files.
• Usage File.
• Remaining Fund file.

List of Files to be Picked up by OEM's Server from DoP Server:

• License Issue File
• License Modification File
• Fund File
• Acknowledgement File in respect of Files received from OEM's Server

8. The Department of Posts Central Resource would make these reports available through website with restricted access given to concerned Postal Authorities which can download reports of the FMs operating under their jurisdiction on a need based basis.

The formats for information exchange between the Bank Server and DoP Server, and download of Licensing details, updation files and reports between RMFS Server and DoP Server shall be as per the formats specified in Annexure ‘F’. The diagram for funds uploading in this manner shall look like this