Postage stamp to be increased to Rs. 100 in July

19 June 2024 12:09 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 9 Bookmark

CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA Follow

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Colombo, June 19 (Daily mirror) - A proposal has been made to increase the price of an ordinary postage stamp to Rs. 100 by July, Mass Media Ministry Secretary Anusha Palpita said.

He told the Daily Mirror that the Postal Department is currently incurring an annual loss of Rs. 7,000 million.

"Last year, the loss was reduced to Rs. 3,200 million. However, with a salary increase for postal employees costing Rs. 2,800 million this year, the Postal Department's loss will rise again to Rs. 7,000 million." he said.

"If the losses continue to increase, it might reach Rs. 5 billion by 2025. Less than 1.5 million people use postage stamps, yet the entire country bears the burden of the Postal Department's losses,” he added.

The price of a stamp was Rs. 15 until 2022, and the current price is Rs. 50.

“We are awaiting approval from the Treasury to raise the price of a postage stamp. This decision is necessary due to the ongoing losses of the Postal Department," Palpita said.

Comments - 9

Bushel Wednesday, 19 June 2024 12:26 PM

This is how Sri Lanka solving problems of the country. They never find the cause of the problem instead they get the innocent people to pay the price for the fault of the inefficiency of the management

1 11

don Wednesday, 19 June 2024 12:27 PM

now itl bankrupt and close. no one will send letters

1 11

Rip Winkle Wednesday, 19 June 2024 01:13 PM

This problem will not be solved even if the price of a stamp is raised to a thousand rupees because the corruption within your institution will continue.

0 49

Why not Wednesday, 19 June 2024 01:15 PM

It would be better to diversify into parcel delivery and handling and not only stick to postage. It'll be profitable.

0 3

Anusha B Wednesday, 19 June 2024 01:27 PM

Wrong presentation. Postage for a Local Ordinary Letter will be increased (from 50/-) to 100/- Postage stamps are available for different denominations.

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Nimal 1 Wednesday, 19 June 2024 02:13 PM

Of course the presentation is wrong. What is proposed to be increased are the postal rates and not the price of stamps. Whatever it is, it will be additional burden on the public as other rates are also likely to be increase many fold. A far cry from the good old days about seventy years ago, when the charge for an ordinary letter was just six cents and a postcard cost just three cents. The benevolent governments those days was more concerned about serving the public rather than making profits out of its own inefficiencies and mismanagement. If at all the charges had to be increased it was by a reasonable percentage and not doubling the charge as is being done today.

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Cherath Wednesday, 19 June 2024 03:38 PM

If the reason is to meet the losses of the Postal Services and to mitigate the impending increase in salaries, the workers there and everywhere will be asking even further increases to meet the rising costs. What do you do then? Increase the prices again? And where does it end? Is this how they do in other countries?

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INCOME TAX PAYER SINCE 1975 Wednesday, 19 June 2024 11:00 PM

I could still remember postage being increased from 6 cents to 10 cents with a postage stamp with King Coconuts in the picture. Open letters / Printed Matter 4 Cents stamp with picture of a Kandyan Dancer, post card 3 cents. There was another item called letter card, something like the aerogramme BUT for inland use only -postage 6 cents....ALL this during our lifetime. BUS FARE Kollupitiya to Colombo Fort - 2 sections ONLY 10 cents! People were happy without many 'luxuries' of today!

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Gee de Silva Thursday, 20 June 2024 07:18 AM

If they proceed with this move, this will be the last nail in the coffins of the postal department as people will find alternatives. This proposal to pass on the losses of the postal department, to the public, goes to show how archaic the thinking of the management of the postal department is. The postal service should be modernized and revamped. Certain countries overseas have outsourced the distribution of letters to private individuals who are hired on contract and paid a fee for delivering letters. This way, they don’t have to maintain a fleet of push cycles/vans etc, which adds to their losses by increasing their inventory of assets and their fuel bills.

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