Your Xmas and New Year mail is bound to cost you a lot more this year especially if you are not an e-mail and e-card fan. The most common letter sent locally ? 50g ? will increase from Rs 2 to Rs 5. International mail is also expected to rise considerably though the Postal Authority have not given any figures yet.

The Mauritius Post Ltd (MPL) had actually been requesting the authorities for an increase for more than a year. MPL wanted it to start at Rs 7 to reflect the real value of the service as their operation costs have kept increasing since the latest rise in November 2003. ?We have more than Rs 100 million additional expenses,? revealed a representative of MPL.

Several causes can explain the rise in operation costs over recent years. Employees had to be compensated when the post became a private company. Moreover, new services offered by the post like Clickpost.com or cyber cafes in every post office, as well as the increase in oil prices, had made the increase irreversible.

But this rise is not only due to past problems or factors; it is also because, as a private company, the post office now has to be profitable. To achieve such results and be able to process its 60 million letters annually, it was becoming urgent to ask the public to make an effort. It is the public which will eventually benefit from these increases with the improved services promised by MPL.