Unclaimed money orders add over Rs. 5 mln to state revenue
Sri Lanka’s Department of Posts will henceforth be invalidating unclaimed Postal Service Money Orders (MOs) issued three years ago – in 2013, a top official of the Department said. A newspaper advertisement was recently placed by the department announcing this move. The total amount accumulated during this period is in the region of Rs. 5.8 million, he revealed. The department holds a significant amount of unclaimed money in MOs and the accumulated money is credited to the Treasury after two years from the last day of the month of its issue, Postmaster General D.L.P Rohana Abeyaratne told the Business Times. Each year an average of more than Rs. 5 million worth of MOs is not cashed by recipients mostly for unknown reasons, he disclosed.
Some of the known reasons for non claims of MOs are that it is being produced in a court of law, retained in rent control board on legal grounds, payee of the MO is overseas or in a bad state of health, disabled or deceased, he said adding that several other payees named in the MOs were not coming to post offices to cash it due to miscommunication and unknown reasons. An MO is valid for six months from the last day of the month of its issue. But under exceptional circumstances, the payment of a lapsed MO is considered for refunding up to two years from the last day of the month of its issue. According to the regulation made under Section 45 of the Post Office Ordinance, an MO cannot be refunded after a 2 -year period lapses.
However the department is considering the appeals being made by the people who have not cashed it. Mr. Abeyaratne said that the accumulated money of all such MOs is credited to the Treasury as state revenue. In the latest case, the department has decided to grant a 3-month grace period with effect from August 5 to make refunds only in respect of MOs issued during the 12 months of 2013. He said that the department has issued the relevant Gazette notification and published newspaper advertisements every year to create awareness on the procedure enabling the payees to appeal for their refunds for non claimed money orders if there are any valid reasons for no claims.
The incidents of no claims were minimal in electronic MOs as it is a sustainable and new user friendly facility which enables users to utilise the new, fast money transfer system, he said adding that this facility is available in 654 General Post Offices in urban areas. There are 3,410 sub-post offices, one in each village and the MO facility has been the traditional mode of transferring money through the rural postal network countrywide, he revealed. The transactions are being done manually, leading to a large number of errors, as there is much paperwork involved, he added. He noted that almost all the post offices in the country will be networked and equipped with modern computer facilities Internet, fax, and wireless access in order to provide a better service to the people.