Government is poised to push a bill aimed at the introduction of Converged Communication Regulator in a move that is aimed at leveling the playing ground and cleansing bogus operators in the country’s ailing system, BotswanaPost Director General, Pele Moleta, has said.
“We expect the bill calling for the introduction of the regulator to come before parliament in 2011. At the moment, there is no regulator,” he said in an interview with Sunday Standard recently.
The absence of converged communication operator has affected BotswanaPost bottom-line as the market is fraught with “unregulated and unregistered operators” who are largely riding on the back of BotswanaPost as it provide universal service. The move is also expected to provide the market certainty by keeping away bogus operators.
“Anyone can open up shop at anytime despite his or her delivery standards. And there is nothing that we can do to stop people opening up their mailing companies since there is no regulator,” Moleta said.
Some of the unregistered operators have identified loopholes in Botswana’s low mailing tariff system and have sealed deals with bulk mailing companies within the neighbouring countries to get mail destined for Botswana into the country. The unregistered operators then post it within Botswana to take advantage of the low tariffs.
The practice means that BotswanaPost through its low tariffs is subsidising mail from neighbouring countries because if mail was posted from there they would pay higher tariffs.
“Our major concern last year was on the suboptimal tariffs, which, if not changed, were threatening the very foundation of our business. In the international mail exchange arena, there have been rapid changes that will erode our revenue unless adjustments are made to the tariffs structure.
“Our tariff used to be P1.10 per letter and it was costing us P2.32 to transport a letter cross the country and it meant that we were loosing,” Moleta said.
“Tariff rebalancing is important to us to recover our costs as business. If our tariffs are low in Botswana, it means that a country like USA (where tariffs are high) will pay us in accordance with our rate,” he added.
The tariff increases that were approved last year have enabled BotswanaPost to sign up to the Global Monitoring System, which sees the company adjusting its service delivery to the international level by 2012.
Under the system, BotswanaPost will be paid by other global partners (Post Offices) based on the international system, which is based on performance and the way they handle mail.
The move is different from the current one where the charges are based on a primitive system based on weight irrespective of the service delivery.
