A Breather For Pos Malaysia

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FINALLY, the 10-year wait for Pos Malaysia bears some fruits when the government allows it to revise commercial postage rates effective February 1, 2020. thus making it more competitive in the world's postal business.

In a statement Tuesday, Pos Malaysia said the move is in tandem with the rising operation costs and the increase in the international rate structure by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which has changed the global postal landscape and prompted the company to transform the postal system for greater efficiency.

Will it burden the people? No, it said as it is going to be minimal judging the last revision was only done in 2010. When other postal companies around the world have seen tariffs hike of between 30 and 50 per cent, ours is still considered 'small'.

The national postal services provider has been facing additional strain from its ever-growing terminal dues, which could set to rise as a result of the ongoing discussions within the UPU.In its annual report for the financial year ended March 31, 2019 (FY19), the group’s terminal dues swell 50.3% year-on-year to RM171.83 million, from RM114.27 million in FY18.As part of its membership of the UPU, Pos Malaysia has to pay terminal dues in order to move snail mail to another country. Pos Malaysia’s international business revenue dropped by 8% or RM13.2 million due to regulated pricing and a rise in terminal dues."Since 1969, the designated operator that sends a letter-post item to another country remunerates the destination post for processing and delivering that item. This system of remuneration is known as terminal dues,” the UPU explains on its website.However, the risk of those terminal charges rising even further is present, and if materialised could cause a domino effect that impacts international and domestic postage tariff rates for all countries in the union.As part of the overall trade tensions between the US and China, the US threatened to leave the UPU, citing that the existing system unfairly favours the Middle Kingdom.In a positive note, Pos Malaysia said it will continue to provide affordable postage rates for personal and non-commercial mail users at the current domestic stamp rate of 60 sen.The revised postage rates will only apply to registered mails, commercial mails and small parcels below 2kg, Pos Malaysia said, adding that its commercial clients represent 95 per cent of all mail users in Malaysia with only five per cent comprising individual mail users.Commercial stamp rate will be increased by 70 sen to RM1.30 and commercial registered mail up 90 sen to RM3.10. Its various commercial clients ranging from banking, telecommunications to retail have expressed support towards the new postage rates, as it is deemed reasonable and would have minimal impact on their businesses.It's Group Chief Executive Officer Syed Md Najib Syed Md Noor said the new postage rates will allow them to better support their costs to serve over nine million addresses nationwide under the Universal Service Obligation.“Concurrently, we aim to align our growth with the booming digital economy by embracing innovation to improve service efficiency and customer experience. It is necessary to embark on an aggressive growth plan to remain relevant in the industry as the world is moving towards Industrial Revolution 4.0,” he said.In this aspect, digitalisation is crucial to propel Pos Malaysia’s business further and this is evident by looking at the country’s mobile penetration which is well above 100 per cent, a great milestone achieved by the government in growing Malaysia’s digital economy. The e-commerce sector in Malaysia is expected to grow up to 30 per cent in 2020.International postal services saw an increase in the last mile delivery cost of up to 30 per cent for a small parcel below 2 kg, beginning January 2020 following the decision by the Universal Postal Union from the Geneva Extraordinary Congress in Sept 2019, affecting postal operators globally.Pos Malaysia and it's workers have Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo to thank for his level-headed mind in weighing it's predicament... and the MCMC too.However, I still want to see Pos Malaysia given a free hand in deciding on its future, perhaps by detaching itself from the MCMC which has little to do with postal services. We used to have the Energy, Telecommunication and Post portfolio. Maybe we can bring it back.To Pos Malaysia, let's see the outcome of the new tariffs on the workers. The postmen, especially, are the most important human factor in this business. Can we expect a rise in their basic salary in the near future?

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