Postal reform bills shelve key decisions
The postal ministry has shelved key decisions in the bills to reform the state-run postal system, because it sees no immediate solution to conflicts of opinion between the prime minister, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and related ministries.
Officials at the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications said the two bills to be submitted to the current Diet session will present only a general outline on the key controversial issues.
The bills will enable the postal corporation to take over the government’s postal services, including mail delivery, savings and life insurance, and permit private businesses to offer nationwide postal services.
The key issues to be shelved include the level of mandatory contributions the postal corporation would make to state coffers in lieu of tax, and premiums for deposit insurance by the government.
Also left undecided will be rules regarding installing mail collection boxes under which private-sector entities are licensed to operate mail delivery.
The definition of what constitutes mail to be delivered by such services, will also be decided later.
The officials say the ministry has decided to put off making clear decisions in the bills because doing so would invite a conflict of opinions, slowing down submission of the bills to the current Diet session.
Instead, they have chosen to submit the bills first and leave room for making other decisions to a later date, the officials said.
In order to make that possible, the bills will call for the issuing of ordinances at Cabinet and ministerial levels, as well as governmental guidelines, to refine unresolved details after the reform legislation is made.
The ministry will explain these arrangements to the LDP’s division for public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications today. By postponing decisions on some of the fundamental details the postal ministry will be able to continue negotiating with the Ministry of Finance on the amount and timing of mandatory state payments by the postal corporation.
The Ministry of Finance has been calling for such contributions, paid instead of tax, as well as a “state guarantee fee” which would function as the premium for the state government’s deposit insurance.
The draft bill calls on the new corporation to pay contributions in amounts “specified by a Cabinet ordinance.” It also states such an ordinance has to take into consideration the corporation’s operational performance.
In response to criticism that having to have some 100,000 mail collection boxes nationwide to be allowed to compete in the mail delivery sector may prove an insurmountable hurdle, the draft bill also leaves room for using convenience stores as collection sites. But the bill leaves hard details to later discussions.
As for definition of what constitutes mail, the postal ministry is still debating the issue with the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, according to the officials.
