Local stamp increased to $20
-US-bound letter now $80
Stabroek News
June 27, 2003
In a bid to cover its costs, the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) has increased postage rates for basic mail with a stamp for a local letter now costing $20.
In a press release yesterday, GPOC says the prices for mail have been unchanged since 1994. The new rates will take effect from July 1. For the usual 20-gramme letter, the prices are as follows: Local airmail $20, Caribbean airmail $55, USA airmail $80, Canada airmail $80 and the United Kingdom airmail $100. According to the release the complete schedule of postal rates covering letters and packages is displayed fully at all post offices and will be published in condensed form. Also, the prices for Express mail Service and other enhanced services which are adjusted from time to time in a purely business way, remain unchanged at this time.
With respect to local mail, the GPOC has estimated that total costs, including the GPOC’s cost for the stamp, right through to the delivery of a letter, vary widely but for the most part lie between $12 and $30 per piece.
As for mailing to the USA, the company incurs $10 for local costs, which is one half of complete mailing and $67 as charges to be paid for transport to and delivery in the USA.
GPOC pointed out that at the price of $30 for each foreign mail each letter was being subsidised by at least $40. This subsidy was largely hidden by arrangements under the Universal Postal Union (UPU) by which pairs of nations deliver mail from each other at the same set price. Moreover, more mail is sent from the USA to Guyana than from Guyana so there is usually a net payment to Guyana.
According to the GPOC, it is also important these days that rates for mailing cover costs so as to avoid the exploitation of subsidised prices. The release explained that the price for mailing a letter within the USA is US 37 cents ($70.30) and the price of mailing a letter to Guyana is US 60 cents or $114. GPOC states that with the current $6 for local stamps and $30 for airmail to the USA one could see potential for re-mailing, bringing mail in bulk into Guyana to mail locally to points within Guyana and to mail to destinations anywhere in the world, including the USA. Whilst at earlier times “remailing” was illegal, in today’s liberalised, globalised environment postal authorities either directly or indirectly through contractors are free to move mail in bulk into another territory for local mailing there.
For such reasons, cost recovery prices set the stage for the mail to be used wherever advantageous without any sense of “exploitation’. For example, GPOC said legitimate operations could be set up in Guyana by companies from abroad to envelope and mail magazines or promotional literature to persons all across the world.
These new rates, GPOC said, would enable the company to sustain and continue the improvements of its service. The release noted that postal authorities had enjoyed a monopoly on the delivery of all letters and parcels because it was mandated these be delivered no matter how uneconomical.
But in recent times, courier and other private sector services have developed, taking the lucrative portions of the mailing business and leaving postal authorities with the more difficult and higher cost parts.
