Australia Post has announced it will be lodging a formal request with the Australian Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to increase the price of stamps.
Currently the basic postage rate (BPR) is 60 cents, and if approved by the ACCC, from 31 March the price will jump to 70 cents.
Any increase to the BPR will have a flow on effect to the prices of business mail, and Australia Post has said it will be contacting its business customers over the coming days with full details of any potential changes.
Ahmed Fahour, Managing Director & CEO of Australia Post said in a statement that the current stamp price no longer reflects the true cost of delivering each letter.
Fahour added that the stamp price increases, (the latest was in 2010) have not kept up with inflation.
“This 10 cent increase will allow us to partially offset the growing losses that we are seeing in our letters business. At 70 cents the Australian domestic stamp will remain among one of the lowest prices in the OECD,” the CEO said.
Included in the request to the ACCC is a proposal to introduce a concession rate for eligible Australians – if approved, customers with a valid Commonwealth Government concession card will continue to pay 60 cent postage for standard letters until 2017.
“We are always reluctant to increase the price of postage but we know that it’s absolutely necessary to maintain essential services and support our critical retail network of more than 4,400 outlets,” Fahour said.
“We are very mindful of the potential cost-of-living impact this increase might have on Australians – particularly pensioners, job-seekers and low-income earners and that’s why we’re proposing the introduction of the Concession Stamp Rate. The 60 cent rate would be held until 2017, in effect maintaining the stamp price at the same cost for seven years for those 5.7 million eligible Australian customers,” Fahour added.