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)