Growing concerns over India Post’s declining services

Postal Department should issue special RTI stamps in denominations of rupees 2, 10 and 50 on the lines of earlier such stamps used for licences of radio and TV sets. Presently, copying charges under the RTI Act in amounts lower than rupees 10 are not feasible because of discontinuance of postal orders in denominations of rupees 2

From forcing customers to make even small Speed Post payments through mobile phones or by purchasing postal stamps separately, to shrinking post-office presence in busy commercial hubs like Old Delhi, the Department of Posts appears to be drifting away from public convenience.

Postal Department has now made it compulsory for even petty payments for Speed Post and other postal services to be made through mobile phones, doing away with the normal practice of accepting cash. Users of postal services are instead advised first to purchase postal stamps by standing in a queue at another counter and then join the queue for Speed Post service after affixing the postal stamps. This ridiculous practice harms the Department as well, when unnecessarily the Department’s money is wasted on such postal stamps sold merely to avoid cash being received directly for Speed Post services. Department of Posts should restore the earlier practice of accepting cash or payments through mobile phones in respect of Speed Post services.

Many post offices, like the one at Delhi Railway Station, accept Speed Post items only after 12 noon. There should be uniform timings in all post offices for accepting items to be sent through Speed Post. Special 24x7 Speed Post counters should work without break rather than stopping service in between for some time gaps. This should not create a problem since there are always two staffers deployed at each counter, out of whom one can handle the work during the break for the other staffer. Newly introduced printing machines for printing Speed Post receipts with stickers are not being used because of the alleged non-availability of paper rolls. Department should ensure sufficient supply of paper rolls, ensuring use of these printing machines at all post offices. It will be beneficial to the public exchequer also by avoiding man-hours and gum used to paste postal receipts in government departments on their despatch registers.

Most of the post offices in the commercial hub of the Old Delhi area have been closed only because of the huge reduction in postal business. People are instead shifting towards unreliable and costly courier services because of difficulties created by the Postal Department, as referred to above. Instead, the Postal Department should be more user-friendly to increase its earnings. With the introduction of government savings schemes in banks, post offices mainly function for booking Speed Post articles. With the increasing trend of online banking, bank branches can be approached to provide counters for booking Speed Post by paying them nominal commission.

During renovation of Chandni Chowk, a building was especially constructed at Bhai Mati Dass Chowk (Fountain) for providing space for public utility services in the public sector, including postal services apart from banking and insurance (both life and general). But this building is lying vacant. Postal Department should approach Municipal Corporation of Delhi to provide space in this building for opening a post office.

It is time that the Postal Department reviews all its postal services to induce newness in the system, also aimed at more earnings for the Department without hurting commoners. The aim should be to promote postal services for effectively competing with the increasing use of private courier services.

Postal Department delivers highly subsidised rubber-stamped (printed) postcards costing just 50 paise to Akashwani (All India Radio), where senders write “Any Song” for programmes of listeners’ choice of film songs merely to get their names broadcast on Akashwani. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, postcard politics between political parties cost the public exchequer heavily. Postcards are also misused for commercial purposes, such as by chit-fund companies to send reminders for payments. All such printed or rubber-stamped postcards should be discarded without delivery.

Subsidised postcards and Inland Letter Cards, not being used by common people, should be discontinued. Only sponsored Meghdoot postcards should remain, with a postal tariff of one rupee. Printed postcards should be priced at ten rupees. Likewise, registered newspapers should have a subsidised tariff of one rupee, whereas even the cost of inputs for production of small newspapers has risen manifold.

While normal postal services are exempt from GST, levying GST on select services like Speed Post is senseless, with tax money going from one pocket of the government to another. Levying GST on postal services results in expenditure of resources on paying GST by the Postal Department and its collection by the GST Department. Speed Post tariffs, both local and non-local, should be rationalised uniformly at rupees 20 or 30 (abolishing GST) per 50 gm weight slab or part thereof. All other postal tariffs (inland and international) should be in multiples of ten rupees. Postal tariff for ordinary mail should be revised to ten rupees per 50 gm weight slab. International postal tariffs (both air and surface) should be rationalised by having equal tariff rise for every 20 gm weight slab for air mail, and for every 50 gm weight slab in the case of surface or sea mail.

Sponsored postal stamps, with some minimum stipulated number carrying advertisements or other messages desired by sponsors to be endorsed by a committee of the Department, with sponsorship charges fixed per printed stamp, should be introduced. The system will generate enormous revenue firstly from sponsorship and secondly by making sponsoring companies shift from private courier companies to postal services.

To induce newness in the system and for earning extra revenue through philately, an altogether new definitive series of postal stamps and postal stationery should be issued simultaneously in all denominations every year on the first day of the new financial year, which should also be the date of revision of postal tariffs, if any. But the colour of a particular denomination of a postal stamp of the definitive series should remain the same, with only a change in design on the basis of the theme selected for that year.

Commemorative stamps in denominations of rupees 12 and 41 were issued on 24.01.2019 and 12.06.2019 respectively. With rationalisation of postal tariffs in multiples of ten rupees, commemorative stamps should then be issued only in multiples of ten rupees and only in the two most commonly used denominations. But the practice of printing stamps of different denominations in the same stamp sheet (except miniature sheets) should be discontinued because users of stamps of different denominations are different. The collection item of ‘Miniature Sheets’ should be priced higher than the face value of the stamps in them.

Media reports indicated that some notorious persons from the underworld managed to get postage stamps issued with their photos printed under the “My Stamp” concept, where individuals can get their photos printed on postage stamps to be used towards postal tariffs on payment of extra cost. There is no provision whereby the “My Stamp” concept may not be available for tax defaulters and persons with criminal backgrounds. India Post should immediately discontinue the “My Stamp” concept because practically there can be no provision whereby persons with notorious backgrounds may not be able to get their photos printed on postage stamps.

Postal Department discontinued postal orders in outdated denominations like rupees 1, 2, 5 and 7 because of extremely low sales figures and high handling costs. Handling cost of a postal order was rupees 37.45 to the Postal Department in the year 2011-12. Handling cost for clearing operations of banks and in concerned public authorities was even extra. The public exchequer should not bear such extraordinary loss in handling postal orders in denominations like rupees 10 and 20. Rather, higher denominations like rupees 100, 200 and 500 may be added to avoid purchase of demand drafts in submitting various types of fees.

Postal Department should issue special RTI stamps in denominations of rupees 2, 10 and 50 on the lines of earlier such stamps used for licences of radio and TV sets. Presently, copying charges under the RTI Act in amounts lower than rupees 10 are not feasible because of discontinuance of postal orders in denominations of rupees 2. Even the Central Information Commission, through its verdicts and administrative orders, has repeatedly recommended issue of RTI stamps.

There is huge unclaimed money lying deposited in post offices, with many account holders and depositors having died without informing their legal heirs. There are always chances of frauds (as happened in some banks), whereby mischievous persons in connivance with certain postal employees may try to grab such unknown deposits. Postal Department should send letters by registered post in the names of such account holders and depositors who have not operated their accounts and claimed maturity amounts of deposits in the last, say, three years, giving them a reasonable period of, say, three months to either renew their accounts or deposits.

Otherwise, all such unclaimed money may be frozen in some fixed account, which may be allowed to be withdrawn only after careful verification. Details of all such accounts should then be made public also so that legal heirs may be able to claim them, but only after a rigorous scrutiny procedure. Postal Department should follow LIC of India in introducing successive nomination in all deposits, including government savings schemes.

The writer is an RTI consultant holding the Guinness World record for most letters published in newspapers; Views presented are personal.