Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Postal Department after bearing heavy subsidy-losses for long with incoming revenue reduced and overheads increased, has at last decided to raise postal-tariffs. It is time that outdated loss-making postal services like Inland Letter Cards, Book-Post and ordinary post-card be discontinued retaining sponsored Meghdoot post-card priced at Re one ensuring that it may not be misused for commercial or entertainment purposes. Presently chit-fund companies and those wishing to get their names broadcast in programmes of listeners-choice presented by All India Radio misuse heavily subsidised post-cards.
Raising cost of sponsored Meghdoot to Re one will not affect even poorest of the poor who may be using just one or two post-cards in a month, while he may be burdened indirectly through tax on other items needed to offset effect of subsidy on postal-items. With cost of inputs for registered newspapers having been increased manifolds, it will not be unjustified to have at least one-rupee postal-tariff for mailing these thus making one-rupee as minimum postal-tariff. Subsidised Book-Post tariff is mostly used by affording rich to send greeting cards, and should be abolished.
Tariffs for other postal-services including of premium postal-services like Speed Post and Express Postal Service should be rationalised in multiples of Rs 10 for equal tariff-rise for every equal rise in weight-slab. One-nation, one-tariff policy should be there for Speed Post abolishing GST from premium postal-services. Charging service-tax from Department of Posts that too only on some select postal-services has been like transferring money from one pocket to other of the government resulting in unnecessary paper-work and procedural aspects involving huge man-hours.
Speed Post tariff should be same for local and non-local services say at Rs 20 or Rs 30 per 50 gms or part unlike presently at Rs 17 and Rs 39 respectively. Presently there are slabs where fast and reliable Speed Post is much-much economical than totally unreliable ordinary postal-tariff. For example an article weighing 500 gms sent locally through Speed Post costs just Rs 25 while the same article if mailed through ordinary post costs Rs 125.
