BOTSWANA POST HIKES SERVICE FEES The national postal services provider Botswana Post has hiked postal services tariffs in a desperate bid to reduce the operational costs. When announcing the tariff hike, Botswana Post Head of Communications Lebogang Bok said the increase was necessary to mitigate the operational costs that continue to rise and meet international and regional operating standards. For the period under review the company’s administrative costs increased sharply. Although the operating expenses were reduced by well over P5 million from the previous year, the expenses were still steep at P127 million. The skyrocketing operational costs which Bok said Botswana Post’s tariff hike aims at addressing, led to losses amounting to P4.3 million for the full year ended 31 March 2012. This is the third year running that Botswana Post has made an overall net loss, although for the current reporting period, the company has managed to reverse last year’s loss by a turnaround of 100 percent up from a loss of P8 million of the 2011 reporting period. The tariff increases, which were effected on Monday this week, include postal, money exchange and delivery services. According to the postman, the letter mail, private bag and Express Mail Services (EMS) will increase by 10 percent. Before the 10 percent increase in tariffs, surface mail service in Botswana, from standard to oversize, came at a cost of P3.20 to P6.60 respectively while in the SADC region it was P6.60 to P9.20 by air, depending on its size. By surface it was from P6.50 to P7.80. Sending letters and packets across the rest of Africa ranged from P6.70 to P11.30 depending on size while to the European region it was P7.30 to P17.40. The same services extended to the rest of the world were P7.30 to P18.40. On the other hand, the EMS prices came at a minimum price of P43.80 locally, P97.80 in South Africa and P141.90 across SADC. Across Africa it cost P161.50, P167.50 in Europe and P198 40 across the world. Meanwhile Bok said Botswana Post, which is in a process of commercialisation, has taken steps to diversify its products and services in line with the diversified customer base and to also increase its footprint. Botswana Post has a network of 123 postal offices and 79 postal agencies. It is in the process of partnering with Botswana Building Society (BBS) to go commercial.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 08:54:33 +0000
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