An increase of 1c on single piece domestic mail up to 50 grammes has been approved by the Malta Communications Authority. The increase will come into effect today week.

The MCA also approved adjustments in the price of foreign outbound parcels to certain countries.

In a statement, the MCA said that it declined Maltapost requests for an increase in the price for registration of mail, higher weight-steps of domestic mail (more than 50 grams) and for bulk mail,.

These requests will be considered within a future price control mechanism.

The MCA said its decision was taken following a thorough review of Maltapost's cost accounting system to ensure it was sufficiently robust and according to best practice and a public consultation.

All tariff requests were evaluated separately and the MCA granted increases only when these were deemed justified, the authority said.

It said that with respect to bulk mail, the MCA concluded that current tariffs were around the level of costs incurred by Maltapost to provide such a service so no immediate adjustment was warranted.

The last revision of the tariffs for foreign outbound parcels took effect in 1997.

Since then the tariffs paid by customers for the destinations in question have become substantially below costs, which continued to increase (such as air transport and foreign postal operator charges).

The MCA took into consideration the impact of the proposed price increases on affordability.

Its analysis revealed that based on the latest Household Budgetary Survey (HBS), published by the National Statistic Office (NSO), the share of postal-related household expenditure per annum is quite low, standing at around €18, down from €26 registered in the previous HBS.

The same conclusion was arrived at when considering the impact on the Retail Price Index (RPI) which was estimated to show a negligible effect on its overall level.

From a sustainability perspective, the MCA performed various simulations to gauge the expected impact on the overall profitability of Maltapost's regulated activity taking into consideration costs, efficiency levels and trends in postal volumes.

This analysis concluded that the overall profits of the universal postal service are expected to remain healthy and fair.

Domestic letter mail (letter mail posted and delivered in Malta)

Registration of domestic postal articles

No increases approved.

Foreign outbound parcels