| From October 1, new tariffs for universal postal services were introduced. Now they are the same for residents of all regions. We are talking about the new cost of sending various types of letters and postcards by mail. The cost of these types of postal services is set by the Federal Tariff Service, which is run by the state, and is subject to regular revision - this is mainly due to inflation indexation.
The change in tariffs this year coincided with a change in the system for calculating them. For the first time, the cost of postal items is the same for the entire country (previously, different tariffs were in effect in different regions, the highest in the Far East and Far North). From October 1 of this year, it no longer matters where the letter is sent from - prices in any region are the same.
The result of this recalculation was a situation in which prices for the same type of postal service in one region may decrease, and in another - increase. Thus, on average, in the regions of the Far North, the cost of sending postal items decreased by 17.6%, for residents of other regions it increased by 18%. The average increase in tariffs across the country will be 10%.
The introduction of common tariffs for the entire country was another step in the implementation of the new development strategy of FSUE Russian Post, which provides for the unification of services and tariffs throughout the country for all types of activities. The position is quite logical: the country's postal enterprises have united as part of a single national postal operator, ready to provide residents of all regions of Russia without exception with the same list of services at the same fixed prices.
At the same time, as the postal workers themselves note, the cost of postal items for postal clients remains lower than the real cost of shipping. This happens due to the fact that letter delivery in our country remains a socially important service, the prices for which are dictated by the state. Thus, even despite the general increase in tariffs, letters and postcards remain unprofitable for the post office.
“The introduction of new tariffs will not make universal postal services profitable,” says Andrei Beskorovainy, head of the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz). “However, this will at least help reduce losses from the provision of this type of service. It should be understood that Russian Post - an enterprise that must develop and modernize, and therefore earn money to update its technical fleet, introduce new technologies, and train personnel. In this regard, I consider the revision of tariffs to be an extremely timely and necessary measure.”
Earlier, Russian Post announced a revision of tariffs for the delivery of subscription newspapers - in this case, the tariffs were also brought to general indicators (instead of their own prices in each region - 14 tariff zones with general fixed prices). Obviously, there is reason to expect unification of tariffs for other services. Valeria SKORNIKOVA
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