The Planning Commission has termed the department of post?s proposal seeking exclusive rights to delivering letters weighing up to 150 gm as ?consumer unfriendly? and said such a move would lead to a monopoly.
The commission?s opposition have been expressed on the draft Cabinet note of the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, being circulated for comments by the DoP.
According to the proposal, the DoP would have the privilege of delivering postal articles weighing up to 150 gm. Further, courier companies might be allowed to operate in this reserved area provided they charge five times the postage imposed by DoP for ordinary letters and 2.5 times of Speed Post rates for urgent and express mails.However, opposing the move, the Planning Commission has said introduction of a ?price-multiple? model was not in favour of the consumers as they would have to pay a higher price than what they are currently paying.
Illustrating its point, the plan panel has said: ?as per the present proposal there would be two categories of mail?ordinary and express or urgent mail. As on date, the difference between express and urgent mail has not been defined.?
It further said, ?If ordinary mail is taken to be an article of post for which no record is kept and no receipt is given to the consumer by the courier, the charges levied by the courier would be five times the rate of DoP, i.e Rs 25 for a letter weighing upto 20 gms. If a receipt is given to the customer it would be treated as urgent letter and charges will be 2.5 times the speed post charges corresponding to prescribed weights and distance slab. The minimum speed post charges for letter weighing upto 50 gms, is Rs 25. Thus making a binding on the couriers to charge 2.5 times, i.e Rs 62.5. Thus the customer for a letter weighing 20-40 gms, has to pay a relatively higher charge and would have no choice but to go to the DoP. This will lead to a monopoly situation for the DoP and the poor customer would suffer.?
Alternatively, the Planning Commission has suggested that either the courier companies be allowed to charge 2.5 times of the ordinary mail or keeping the consumers in mind, the present proposal be dropped and the courier companies be allowed to carry the reserved category of mails and retain the current practice.