Tag: India

Indian Postal Insurance Likely to be Split Off

Posted by | Jun 18, 2007 | |

The Indian Post Office is likely to hive off its postal life insurance business into a separate entity by next year, following which it could come under Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority purview.

This will enable it to come up with more life products as well as avail of the investment opportunities offered to regular insurance companies.

While the modalities are being worked out, an investment committee has been formed to look for a fund manager for deploying the funds collected from postal life and rural postal insurance schemes into various avenues for investment.

“There are various amendments being brought about in the Postal Act and changes are likely to be introduced in the next session of the Parliament” said Shakeel Ahmad, minister of state for communication and information technology, said.

Indian Post will also metamorphose to a full-fledged bank called Post Bank of India in a few years.

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Postal department to collect Speed Post from homes

Posted by | Jun 17, 2007 | |

Sending Speed Post packets will be easier soon with the Department of Posts planning to start the service of collecting parcels from homes at no extra cost.

“We will set up toll-free call centres in eight cities this year where customers can call and get their packets picked up from their homes,” DoP general manager John Samuel said.

The postman would collect packets from homes and deliver it without taking any extra charges, he said. The call centres would be set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad.

DoP would also introduce a system of alerts which will inform customers about the receipt and delivery of Speed Post packets through SMS or e-mail.

Speed Post, which currently has a market share of 27%, expects revenues to go up to Rs550 crore in 2007-08 from Rs449 crore at present, Samuel said.

The monthly traffic from Speed Post exceeded Rs1.4 crore in March 2007.

“With our new measures, the volumes and revenues will definitely go up in future. We are expecting 40-50% increase in our monthly traffic,” Samuel said.

To make Speed Post competitive in the express industry, the government last week reduced the rates for local services by 40% to Rs12 from Rs20 earlier for up to 50 grams, but increased the rates in weight slabs above 50 grams.

Samuel said the Department would also expand its reach to 1,500 cities by the end of this year. It currently has about 5,000 booking offices across 1,200 cities.

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FedEx plans to add more India flights

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

FedEx will increase flights to India in response to growing demand as the country’s air express and cargo markets take off, a senior executive said.

The US integrator expects manufacturing industries such as cars, telecoms and pharmaceuticals to grow in India, foresees rising demand for consumer goods, and believes that improved transport infrastructure will boost the express sector, Michael Mühlberger, FedEx vice president operations Central and Eastern Europe, told the Air Cargo Europe conference at the Transport Logistic fair in Munich this week.

Mühlberger pointed out that poor road connections were playing a role in driving the domestic air express market, but even as road infrastructure improved, air express flights would remain necessary to the distances between the sub-continent’s economic centres.

Ram Menen, head of Emirates Cargo, told the conference that Dubai and Singapore would continue to act as air cargo gateways to India in the future with multiple services to Indian cities due to the poor condition and insufficient capacity of the country’s road and air infrastructure. The USD 14 billion Indian logistics market is growing at about 7% a year, and had excellent growth prospects due to the country’s strong economic growth and demographic structure, he added.

Tom Hoang, Boeing regional director, said that Europe, the Far East and the Middle East were the main air cargo import and export destinations for India. The Indian domestic air cargo market would grow at about 9% a year over the next 20 years, he predicted.

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Speed Post charges cut for local letters

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

The Department of Posts on Monday reduced local Speed Post charges for letters weighing up to 50 gm from Rs. 20 to 12 (including service tax). The service will be available in 1,200 towns across the country.
However, it has increased tariffs for parcels. For a parcel weighing above 500 gm and delivered in destinations 201-1,000 km away, apart from the regular charge of Rs. 45, Rs.15 will be payable for every extra 500 gm. Earlier the rate was Rs.10.
For a 51-200 gm parcel, Rs.70 will be charged for distances between 1,001 and 2,000 km and Rs. 80 for distances beyond 2,000 km. Earlier, the charges were Rs.60. For every additional 500 gm, Rs. 30 will be charged as against Rs. 20 now for 1,001-2,000 km and Rs. 40 as against Rs. 25 now for distances beyond 2,000 km.
At all Speed Post centres, articles meant for the same town will be delivered the same day or on the next working day. The Department would soon buy two cargo aircraft to deliver postal articles in the northeastern States and metros.
Launched in 1986, Speed Post has a market share of 27 per cent, with monthly traffic exceeding 1.4 crore articles.

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Speed Post intra-city rates slashed by 40%

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

The Department of Posts on Monday revised its tariffs for Speed Post service whereby sending packets within a city has become cheaper by 40 per cent even as couriering parcel over long distance has become dearer

The DoP has reduced rates of local Speed Post for packets weighing less than 50 g by 40 per cent. A 50-g packet can now be sent anywhere within a city for Rs 12 instead of Rs 20 being charged at present. The move is aimed at capturing market share from private courier companies, which are already offering local delivery at around Rs 10 for a 50-g packet. The move comes even as DoP is facing a Budget deficit of nearly Rs 1,400 crore

Mr John Samuel, General Manager, Department of Post, however, said that the tariff reduction will not have any impact on DoP’s revenues as volumes are expected to grow. “When we launched One India tariff, we saw a 45 per cent increase in traffic. We are expecting a similar surge in our local post traffic, which until now has been dominated by private courier firms.” Distance slabs The Postal Department has, however, increased the tariff for long distance Speed Post service for higher weight categories. A 500-g packet to be sent over 2,000 km will now cost Rs 80 instead of Rs 70 at present. Similarly, a 500-g packet sent to a destination that is over 1,000 km away will now cost Rs 70 instead of Rs 60. The department blamed the increase in transportation costs for the hike in long distance Speed Post tariffs. The revised tariffs will come into effect from today

Though Mr Samuel said that DoP’s tariffs are cheaper than the rates offered by private courier, the increase in tariffs has put it at par with private players. DTDC, for instance, also offers to carry a 500-g packet over distances beyond 200 km for Rs 80. DoP, however, has more number of distance slabs where it offers to carry the same packet for distances less than 1,000 km for Rs 45. It earned Rs 449 crore in 2006-07 from the service

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