Courier group wants govt to scrap PT Post monopoly

Courier group wants govt to scrap PT Post monopoly

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Association of Courier Companies
(Asperindo) urged the government on Friday to revoke PT Pos
Indonesia's (Posindo) monopoly rights and give greater freedom to
private courier companies.

Asperindo chairman Rudy J. Pesik said on Friday that the
government's hesitation towards deregulating the Indonesian
postal service was unfounded and unreasonable as postal
liberalization has become a trend in a world increasingly anti-
monopolistic.

Posindo's monopoly has been justified on the grounds of public
interest: to provide a mail system that ensures confidentiality,
affordability and accessibility throughout the country.

"The government has always given the excuse that the private
sector was incapable of providing services to people in rural
areas. Well, of course, we never tried because the monopoly was
held by Posindo," he said in a media conference here.

Rudy said that if the monopoly were revoked, he was certain
that many people would want to enter the postal industry as
Posindo's partner, as was the case with PT Telkom when its
monopoly over the provision of telephone services was eased.

The government strengthened Posindo's long held monopoly
through a 1984 law.

The 1984 postal law stipulates that the state-owned company
has exclusive rights to deliver personal letters, postcards and
aerograms. Other forms of mail such as printed matter and small
packets can be delivered by private courier companies.

However, in practice, Rudy said that the private companies
could only deliver documents weighing more than 500 grams,
packets weighing a maximum of two kilograms for small packages
and 30 kilograms for large packages, newspapers, and sekograms --
special letters in braille for the visually impaired.

The definition of documents has also been a source of dispute
between Posindo and private courier companies, he said.

While for most people the difference between private letters
and documents is clear-cut, in Indonesia both could be referred
to as surat, the word stipulated in the 1984 postal law as
describing personal letters, Rudy explained.

"Everything here is referred to as a letter: surat nikah
(marriage documents), surat ijin mengemudi (driver's license),"
he said, adding that some of Asperindo's members have been raided
because they delivered tender papers.

The association said that the government is drafting
legislation which would amend the law. But Rudy said that the
amendment would mean nothing to the private sector if the
exclusive rights so far enjoyed by PT Post were not abolished.

Rudy said that if the government could not revoke the rights
immediately, it should at least show goodwill by easing the
restrictions made for courier services.

"The government should at least gradually ease off the weight
restrictions, and set a deadline for a complete revocation," he
said, adding that if the minimum 500 grams for documents was
formalized in a government edict, it could mean massive lay-offs
from small and medium courier companies with inner-city
operations. (tnt)