Pos Malaysia has pushed through a hefty tariff hike from 1 July, but is such a sharp rise justified?
The standard mail (up to 20g) tariff has shot up from 30 sen to 60 sen while the rate for letters weighing up to 50g soars from 40 sen to 70 sen.
More and more folks in urban areas now rely on email and social networking tools; so this move will hurt the rural folks and others without internet access the most. Snail mail accounts for 62 per cent of Pos Malaysia’s revenue.
As one outraged reader wrote to The Star:
The new tariff is absolutely ridiÂculous as the quantum of increase is simply preposterous. Calculations show that the increase in tariff ranges from a low of 20% to a high of 100%. Of all the categories, six of them have increased by between 50% and 70%, while seven others have gone up by over 70%. In fact, three of them are up by 100%.
The thing is, does Pos Malaysia really need to raise its tariffs now?
For the year ended 31 December 2009, Pos Malaysia posted a profit before tax of RRM109 million up from a loss before tax of RM0.5 million the previous year.
Its profit from operating activities in 2009 was RM82 million (on the back of turnover of RM902 million), only slightly down from its operating profit of RM86 million the previous year (turnover RM922 million).
Its current assets exceeded current liabilities while its ‘cash and cash equivalents’ stood at RM318 million.
This doesn’t look like a company in desperate need of a sharp increase in tariffs. What do you think?
The substantial shareholders of Pos Malaysia as at 15 March 2010 are:
1. Khazanah Nasional Berhad 32.21%
2. Employees Provident Fund Board 9.59%
3. Permodalan Nasional Berhad 8.45%
4. Amanahraya Trustees Berhad Skim Amanah Saham Bumiputera 8.18%
5. Aberdeen Asset Management PLC and its subsidiaries 7.87% (Who does this belong to?)
Could the tariff hikes be a precursor to the government divesting or reducing its stake as suggested earlier? News reports had suggested that 11 parties are interested in bidding for Khazanah’s stake and local parties may tie up with foreign firms to bid.
If the government is divesting some of its stake to private interests, shouldn’t it maintain the previous tariff structure and ask those private interests to prove that they can run Pos Malaysia more efficiently?
Who is subsidising whom now?
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i know many stamp collectors buy new issue stamps and keep them in the album and there is at least one per month. figure out how much pos malaysia is printing ‘money’ for actually no postal work done. the face value of the stamps in most cases are not in accordance to the postal usage but another way of making easy money in a monopolistic situation. my advise to them is to boycot collecting new malaysian stamp issues. this is the only way to stop (this). they are taking stamp collectors for a ride and it is high time the… Read more »
Pos malaysia is overstaffed.
Walk into any post office and you will see many redundant staff.
Thanks Kee for your confirmation. I think I saw you at Zorro’s or Parliament today.
Yalah, remember in the 90’s when Proton Wira was selling like hot cakes? When those used car dealers booked 10 or 20 new wiras at Proton’s selling price and sell it at a higher price? Then Proton should be a fool to sell the Wiras at a cheaper price when the used car dealers are selling it at a higher price?
Does not make sense, just want to argue only!
See you bro!
“O”, I am the original la… how can i agree with those greedy developers who simply raise the prices as and when they like??? Maybe that “kee” is in the construction business, that is why he deems it fit to raise prices ‘sesuka hati’. Anyway, Anil, we are with you to make sure that the developer will make good of those promises, i.e. 24 units of double storey houses for the residents. You did a good job for the poor and needy but as you are well aware the matter is not as simple as some put it in your… Read more »
This is their version of the High Income Economy , Anil.
Remember how the minister explains that to achieve High Income Economy we must first increase the salaries of govt servants and implements the GST !
Any hikes in tariff must be tabled out for approval.
If the govt can control the prices of “ayam & telor ” and it is properly reported and gazetted .
No need to wonder why the sudden 100% postage charges surge.
It is High Income Economy.(for them)
Looks like the government of Malaysia never did anything right!!! Sad…
So you are the orignal Kee, I thought you are a changed man, like a mother hen taking over “besi” place in his absence in Anil’s blog.
2 points: a) the Govt try to show we have a very low % Inflation rate by ARTIFICIALLY keeping these prices down, then after a period of 10 years they jack up the rates by 100%. Somehow even after the huge increases every 5-10 years, yet inflation in Malaysia is “illogically” low as reported. b) The impact can be solved if the rates are increased every 3-5 years at about 5 sen blocks. Then we will not feel the impact so drastically On a more important point, I have opted for all the utility companies / banks etc not to… Read more »
This is a clear case of daylight robbery.
Pos malaysia memang memalukan!
Yes, how else do you expect these half educated … to get some extra income for all the losses they have created for Pos Malaysia.Improving service or efficiency? That 2 words do not exist in their dictionary.
Anil
Perhaps you’d care to take a look at my blog on Dr.M who I hold responsible for many of our country’s current ills at:
http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-accuse-drmahathir-mohamad-jaccuse.html
Thanks.
dpp
we are all of 1 race, the Human Race
Just like Telekom when coporatized back then the monthly basic bill was upped from RM 18 to something like RM 24, Pos Malaysia stamp was increased when corporatized from 20 sen to 30 sen for letters up to 50 gm.
The postal service is really bad: I had to redirect many letters destined for another road with the same house number.
Pos Laju guys zoomed off after one ring of door bell. They leave a note for us to collect and never agree to send again next day.
Nus,
Thats why I never use Pos Laju at all. Use a courier service, its cheaper and faster they collect from your doorstep
It’s in anticipation of $500 million over write off of investment in Transmile Plc which is in receivership/winding up!
Heads I win, tails you lose!
dpp
we are all of 1 race, the Human Race
Thanks for reminding me about Transmile!
Apology guys.
Check this out, please…shut down by… ?
http://rights2write.wordpress.com/
Weird… to visit site.. need to log in ??
Never happened before!!!
Thanks.
What can you expect from these people? In problem? Losing money? What is the cause? No post mortem or efforts to increase productivity but as always, revert to their fixed deposits, the Rakyat! The Rakyat are helpless, what can we do? And again, those staying in the rural areas are going to be affected most. In cities we have so many other alternatives to the postal service by POS Malaysia!
The hike is only justified if proper and efficient service is given. But this is not the case. My postman often puts my neighbour’s letters into my house. Infact, the word often is an understatement. It happens at least 5 or 6 times a month. All his confidential mail enters my post pox. Sometimes, if it is very wet due to rain water, I open them before giving my neighbour. I see how much he got in his bank and what he does with his credit card. My mail goes missing too. Infact, since my neighbour is receiving my mail,… Read more »
Pos Malaysia do not know how to improve productivity.
the only way it can think of increasing revenue is to increase the postage rate. So sad.