Lithuanian Parliamentarians scuffle over price fixing for private, state postal services
VILNIUS, Oct 18, BNS – The Lithuanian parliament Thursday adopted a new version of the law governing postal carriers to bring the country’s legal code into line with EU norms.
The legislation establishes the legal framework within which postal carriers operate, the relationship between mail providers and customers, rights and responsibilities of postal carriers and their accountability for violating the law.
The law requires all postal carriers to have licenses from the government or government authorized agencies.
It also says the state carrier is to deliver pensions and other social welfare payments.
There was disagreement in the parliament over the rates the state enterprise can charge as compared with private postal carriers for services.
The law says the government sets the maximum tariff for universal postal services by the state post office.
Moreover, licensed private carriers must charge 5 times more than the price the state post office charges for reserved postal services.
Those reserved postal services include collection, transport, sorting and delivery of pieces of correspondence weighing less than 350 grams.
Parliamentary liberals proposed a compromise to force private carriers to charge 3 times as much as state services, but the parliamentary majority rejected the idea.
“The tariff is discrimination. I am sorry that a typical social democrat law was drafted on the pretense of fulfilling EU directives,” Liberal faction MP Gintaras Steponavicius said.
“The public interest is preserved in this law,” Social Democratic faction MP Vytenis Andriukaitis claimed.
Most representatives said the non-uniform price setting for state and private services was an attempt to guarantee the state post office won’t lose profitable services to competitors.
Liberals said they were at least glad they managed to change the law by dropping a requirement mail boxes be located on the first floor of apartment buildings.
Steponavicius said there was no EU directive saying where mail boxes must be located.
The law on postal services was passed with 66 MPs in favor, 9 against and 18 casting no vote.
