India to formulate national postal policy

The Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, has informed the Lok Sabha that the Government is proposing to formulate National Postal Policy and is currently engaged in the process of updating the provisions of the Indian Post Office Act to make it more relevant to the times and empower the Postal Services Board so that the department enjoys more functional autonomy. The Government has also recognized the need to clearly identify the Universal Service Obligation and the cost of fulfilling it, which, today, is included as a part of the Department’s budgetary deficit/loss. A major exercise has been initiated to review the system in terms of structure, products, processes, resources, accounting and pricing structure, technology requirements, etc., and to identify how best the Department can meet the twin challenges of becoming commercially viable while continuing to fulfill the Universal Service Obligation.