Hongkong Post announces postal rate changes
The Hong Kong government announced yesterday (October 15) that the Postmaster General (PMG) will adjust Hongkong Post’s (HKP) principal postage rates on 1 January 2016. In the same official statement, the government also announced that the Post Office (Amendment) Regulation 2015 will be tabled at the Legislative Council to adjust certain postal fees under the Post Office Regulations (Cap. 98A) with effect from 1 February 2016.
HKP said that it will be rationalising the postal structure “to better reflect underlying costs”, and it will also be reclassifying mail type to keep in step with global trends.
The government statement explained: “To align with global developments within the postal industry under the Universal Postal Union, postage rates for Local Mail (Letters and Packets), Air Mail (Letters and Packets) and Surface Mail (Letters and Packets) will be set by reference to the new mail format classifications, namely Small Letters, Large Letters and Packets, and weight.
“In step with the introduction of the new mail format classifications, the weight tiers for Local Mail (Letters and Packets) will be rationalised, and the sub-classes of Air Mail (Letters and Packets) (i.e. Air Mail – Second Class) and Surface Mail (Letters and Packets) (i.e. Surface Mail – Printed Papers and Surface Mail – Small Packets) will be abolished.
“An additional geographical zone, Zone 3, will be introduced for Air Mail (Letters and Packets) and Surface Mail (Letters and Packets) to cover selected destinations now included in Zone 2 which have a higher costs base. These changes aim to modernise the postage structure for local and international mail in response to industry and market developments and to better reflect the “user pays” principle.
“‘Second Class’ items under Air Mail (Letters and Packets) as well as ‘Printed Papers’ and ‘Small Packets’ under Surface Mail (Letters and Packets) share the same, if not higher, mail processing costs as other mail items, and their discounted postage rates have to be subsidised by other revenue streams. A postage approach based only on mail format and weight is a more rational and equitable approach.
“For Local Parcels, while the postage rates for items weighing 9 kilograms or below will be adjusted to reflect the cumulative inflation since the last adjustment, the postage rates for items above 9kg will be reduced by up to 28.6%.”
The government statement claimed that, despite the adjustments, postage rates in Hong Kong will still be “fairly low” compared to other countries.
According to government calculations, around 80%, 50% and 25% of Local Mail (Letters and Packets), Air Mail (Letters and Packets) and Surface Mail (Letters and Packets) respectively will not be affected by this round of postage adjustment. Overall, the government statement added, postage rates for around 74% of total postal traffic will remain unchanged.
“The overall weighted average increase in principal postages rates in the current exercise is 6.2%, which is less than the cumulative inflation since the last adjustment in October 2013 (i.e. 9 %),” claimed the Hong Kong government.
