Department Of Posts Targets Private Couriers

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The private courier industry was estimated to be around Rs 35 billion to Rs 40 billion in 2005. Industry experts estimated that over 50% of industry revenues came from shipping letters and documents that weighed less than 300gm. They felt that a revenue loss of such a magnitude would be detrimental to small and medium courier firms.

Courier industry personnel also felt that the proposed levy toward the USO would burden the courier industry with heavy costs, which would result in a depletion of tax revenues for the government and the loss of thousands of jobs in the labor-intensive courier industry.

Moreover, the private courier industry said that the amendments would be detrimental to consumers. People would be forced to utilize the services of the Indian Post Office, which had a reputation for being inefficient and tardy in its delivery services. Consumers would be denied the choice of opting for a quicker courier delivery service especially in the case of shipping urgent documents. EICI chairman, Tushar Jani, said, “If there’s an urgency to send a letter, and a consumer is ready to pay more for it, he should have the choice to do so.” ¹

The government denied that it was hampering the business prospects of the courier industry by proposing these amendments in the Act. The Indian postal service was the main service provider in remote areas, which was not the case with private courier companies.

Also, the DoP said that many developed nations had a weight-based monopoly for their government-owned mail service provider. U Srinivasa Raghavan, Secretary, DoP, said, “In fact some of the countries like France, China, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Hong Kong have complete monopoly of the government in the mail sector.” ²

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