Providing a boost to the e-commerce industry in India, the post departments had handled cash on delivery (COD) orders worth Rs.500 crore up to March 2015 and is expected to reach about Rs.1,500 crore by end of 2015-16, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday.Till December 2015, the COD value has crossed Rs.1,000 crore.Speaking at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the communications & IT ministry, on the e-commerce initiatives of the department of posts, he said various steps taken by the department for gearing up its capabilities for handling e-commerce parcel business as well as introducing services such as COD have revolutionized the e-commerce business in India.
Prasad also said the government’s initiative to digitalize functioning would help in making e-commerce reach every corner. He said the initiative would further enhance India Posts' reach as national carrier.The department of posts had set up 48 new parcel processing centers so far and nine more such centers are coming up during the current financial year, he said."These efforts in the last eighteen months have resulted in an overall revenue growth in the parcel segment by 45 percent during 2014-15 and more than 100 percent in the current financial year," Prasad said.