Govt mails bad news

FE reports

The government wants to reserve the right to carry letters, book post and parcels weighing up to 150 gm for its postal department. Private courier operators may be allowed to service this sector, but they will have to charge five times the postal department’s tariff for the same articles.

In a cabinet note on the proposed Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2007, the department of posts in the ministry of communications & IT has also said that in the case of urgent or exclusive mail services, courier companies will have to charge 2.5 times the Speedpost or Express Mail Services rates.

Exporting onion

Reuters reports

India on Friday cut by $40 a tonne the minimum price at which onion can be exported from the country, aligning it with the fall in local prices and giving a thrust to exports.

The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), a government agency, had in February raised the minimum export price (MEP) by about 30 percent across regions, to discourage exports amid surging local prices.

"Now, arrivals have improved and prices have fallen across the country. So, we decided to reduce the minimum export price," a senior NAFED official told Reuters from New Delhi.