Govt to amend Indian Posts Act to register courier service cos

The government is planning to amend the Indian Posts Act introducing a registration process for all courier service companies operating in the country.

"There are no guidelines, there is in fact no regulatory mechanism. We are thinking of amending the Indian Posts Act and bring out a registration procedure so that at least we know the private courier services operating in the country," Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communication and IT, said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

There are a large number of local operators who "we have no knowledge about. In fact, they are efficient but they may be fleecing customers. We are going to bring about a legislation so that we ensure the registration of all operators in this country in the speed post area", Sibal said.

He, however, said that Speed Post service offered by Department of Post is much more effective vis-a-vis private courier services. "We offer this service in the remote areas where private companies are not present," he said.

Replying to a question that whether there was any proposal to have a common National Tariff for articles mailed by speed post instead of dual tariff for local speed post and speed post to other parts of the country, the Minister said for parcels or documents up to 50 gram there is one India one rate. So there is a uniform tariff policy.

"But, of course, for larger parcels and documents, the tariff will vary and we do not want to change that," Sibal added.