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Fico: We're Losing €13 million Every Year Due to Postal Service Rules
Tuesday 16 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 16 (TASR) - Slovakia annually loses more than €13 million in the management of universal postal services mainly due to state-owned Slovak Post's obligations regarding deliveries up to 50 grams, said Prime Minister Robert Fico after a screening visit at the Transport, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry on Tuesday.
The fact that the Slovak Post has a monopoly also in providing the so-called "hybrid deliveries" - that is, those with added value - has long been criticised by the European Commission. Brussels says the postal service market in Slovakia should be liberalised, and the service should be provided by private providers if they're interested in offering it to customers.
"We've been struggling with this ... where it's absolutely unfair that the state has to guarantee providing universal postal services and thus suffer all the costs to secure that a postman goes anywhere the letter is supposed to be delivered ... but, at the same time, we're being pushed into allowing private companies to cherry pick on the postal market and take money from us," Fico pointed out. Therefore he thinks that the Government should be protecting the Slovak Post.
"We're losing more than €13 million every year just because of this, and the amount is simply missing in the sphere of the post itself," warned Fico, but saying he's not opposed to freeing the market as such. He said he only calls for fair play.
The Transport, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry came up with the amended legislation on postal services in late 2009. The bill is reported to reflect the comments raised by the European Commission, which is to result in loosening up the postal delivery market.
The proposed legislation, which still hasn't appeared on Government's agenda, includes a Regulation according to which private companies entering the market will have to financially contribute to partially compensate Slovak Post's costs in relation to its obligation to provide universal postal services.
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