Tag: Malta Post

The Nationalist party’s allies, the European People’s Party (EPP), have voted to introduce VAT on postal services in the 25 EU member states.

Up to now the 6th VAT Directive, dating back to the 1970s, has so far exempted postal services from VAT. However, in their proposal to Parliament, the Commission proposed to include postal services under the scope of the VAT regime.

Between 2002 and 2003, employment in the postal sector has decreased by 6.09 percent, that is 108, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

The postal service has been showing signs of inefficiency for quite some time but the way mail was handled over the Christmas period showed serious faults and strengthened the general view that there is need for a serious review of the service. Turning the posts department into a company was meant to make the postal service more, not less, efficient. At least that is what privatisation is expected to deliver. In the case of the posts, it has failed to do this.

Reasons given by the chief executive officer for the fact that Maltapost was “caught on the wrong foot” over the festive period only helped to confirm the company’s bad planning. The CEO, Robert Lake, gave as factors insufficient time to settle down to changes launched in September, a different mailing pattern than that anticipated by the company, late mailing by customers and the late arrival of overseas mail, as well as extended holidays granted to staff.