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Govt to revive legendary Tabanas postal savings program
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A diorama featuring a postman delivering mail to villagers is depicted at the Pos Indonesia museum in Bandung, West Java. (Kompas.com)
T
he government is resurrecting the old National Development Saving (Tabanas) program, proposing postal savings for people, including in remote areas, to accelerate financial inclusion across the archipelago.
The Tabanas concept of saving money at the post office was implemented during the New Order regime back in 1971. However, unlike the old concept in which post offices acted as saving outlets for banks, the forthcoming concept will allow them to provide saving accounts.
"The study has been finished and submitted. We are now waiting for technical policies from relevant authorities such as the Financial Services Authority [OJK]," National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head Bambang PS Brodjonegoro said at his office in Jakarta on Thursday.
According to the Banking Law, post offices can be given the authority to collect public funds as savings. "But they cannot make loans, only savings," Bambang explained.
State-owned postal firm Pos Indonesia currently operates 4,154 post offices, of which 3,746 are connected through an online network, the main system needed to support financial inclusion.
Pos Indonesia, Bambang added, would cooperate with Japan Post and Deutsche Post, which have successfully grown their saving businesses and transformed them into giant banks, namely Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd. and Deutsche Postbank AG. (ags)
