From when does Nepal's government postal service completely send letters and parcels abroad?

From when does Nepal's government postal service completely send letters and parcels abroad?

Officials have said that there is still confusion as to when the work of sending letters to foreign countries of Nepal, which has been interrupted since the start of the Covid epidemic, will start.

According to the Department of Postal Services, the process of sending letters abroad was affected when Thai Airways did not start flights in Nepal before the epidemic.

"We are trying to make up for this shortage through other airlines. But they have not given us any answers," said Lakshmi Humagain Khatiwada, director of the department.

"As a result, we are now only able to send letters to the four countries where the Nepali flag carrier is flying: Japan, Malaysia, Qatar and India."

It is said that amid such disruption in the government postal service for almost two and a half years, the service users are forced to use the private postage service at several times the cost.

Thai alternative?

Asia Pacific Postal Union (APPU) has set the rates for postal services, of which Nepal is also a member country, in order to provide postal services at affordable rates worldwide.

"We can't pay airlines more than the rates he sets," says Khatiwada.

As a result, Nepali officials say that the airlines that were asked to replace Thai were not interested because they thought that "the said rate would not be profitable".

But they don't have an answer to the question of what to do instead.

Director Khatiwada says, "We have tried again. We hope that there will be some progress by Tihar."

The pressure of private companies!

Officials admit that disruptions in government services have led to the emergence of a "monarchy" of private courier companies.

The government has now given the authority to the director general of the department to enter into an agreement with any airline company without calling for tenders.

"Recently we have also held discussions with representatives of flight services at the Kathmandu airport," says Khatiwada.

The process of letters and parcels arriving in Nepal from abroad has not been stopped.

Nepali officials argue that since the postal services in many countries are semi-governmental and even privatized, they are able to work loosely at the APPU rate.

service

In Nepal, the government post office has been providing three types of services by express post, parcel and letter.

It is said that due to disruptions in these services, the annual revenue has dropped from a few crores to a few lakh rupees.

According to the statistics of Goshwara Post Office, Dillibazar, in the financial year 2074/75, Rs 3 crore 15 lakh revenue was collected from parcels sent abroad.

In the financial year 2075/76 also, the post office collected revenue of Rs. 3 crore 12 lakh by sending parcels abroad.

But due to the closure of international flights after the start of the Covid epidemic, less revenue was collected in the financial year 2076/77 compared to previous years. It is mentioned in the statistics that this fiscal year, the post office has collected 20 million rupees by sending parcels abroad.

Since Chaitra of 2077, the work of sending parcels to foreign countries was mostly stopped, and after the epidemic slowed down, it opened for limited countries.