Mumbai: India Post, the postal department of the Indian government, has decided to employ external agents to sell its Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) schemes. The department is also planning to introduce more insurance schemes to the government employees.

Says R Ganesan, member (development), Postal Service Board: "We are planning to employ external agents to market our insurance products. So far, only postal department employees are allowed to sell PLI and RPLI schemes; we will now extend insurance marketing to external employees as well."

He says the department will give Rs 2,500 as a basic amount for the external agents and will fix a sales target. "Other modalities of this new initiative are under discussion and a final decision will be taken soon."

During the fiscal 2002-03 the department sold PLI polices worth Rs 3,422 crore and RPIL polices worth Rs 7,160 crore. PLI was introduced during the regime of the British government in India as a welfare scheme for the benefit of postal employees. Later, the scheme was extended to the employees working in other central and state departments as well as to quasi and semi-government employees.

Ganesan says the department is also in talks with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority to launch new schemes like the Group Insurance scheme. "And the new policies are in the proposal stage."