9/29/2023
Post of Serbia: Ensure full implementation of the Law on Postal Services
The Post of Serbia presented a plan for the establishment and continuation of cooperation with local self-government units in the segment of preparation and delivery of utility bills, demanding full implementation of the Law on Postal Services in the coming period.
At the meeting in the MTS hall attended by representatives of local self-government units from all over the country, Zoran Đorđević, Acting Director of the Post of Serbia, presented a new cooperation framework, which, as he said, aims to ensure the legality of the delivery regime of bills issued by utility companies of local self-governments, higher quality services, optimization of collection costs and significant savings in their budgets, but also to ensure the interests of the Public Enterprise "Post of Serbia", the Republic of Serbia and all its citizens.
"We thoroughly analysed the interests of the state, the economy, institutions and citizens, starting from the legal provisions that regulate the obligation of the Post of Serbia to provide universal postal service, as well as the exclusive right to provide reserved postal service as a segment of the universal. We concluded that urgent regulation is needed, protection of legality and our rights in the sense of removing the lost profit further, through the regulation of relations with local self-governments, for mutual benefit", said Zoran Đorđević.
He pointed out that the transfer of postal items containing bills for utility services belongs to the domain of the reserved postal service, which, based on the license issued by the regulatory agency, is performed only by the Post of Serbia, and that any contrary action is illegal and causes damage to the Post of Serbia.
Đorđević explained that the current situation is that as much as 50 percent of bills generated by utility companies are out of postal flows, that in most cities individual bills for utility services (water, heating, cleaning, maintenance of greenery, etc.) are delivered to users, that only part of the bills is delivered by the Post, while the rest is delivered by employees of utility companies. "On an annual level, that is more than one billion dinars of lost income for the Post," said Đorđević.
In the continuation, a new model of cooperation was presented, which includes the conclusion of a memorandum on the cooperation of the Post of Serbia with local self-government units - the founders of companies that perform utility activities, the application of which ensures the sending of letterpost items by the providers of utility services through the Post of Serbia. By concluding a memorandum and opting for one of the three offered models of business cooperation - transfer of postal items containing bills for utility services, package of services: transfer of postal items with bills, services of mass printing and creation of envelopes using pressure seal technology, or system of unified billing, local self-governments undertake to establish business cooperation with the Post of Serbia, and ensure that their utilities providers send all bills for the provided utility services to users via the Post.
Additionally, numerous benefits that the new model of cooperation brings for citizens, utility companies and local governments were presented.