The recent price hike in the speed post charges has created a flutter among the public and officials of the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) as the public are asked to pay additional charges to get the registration certificate and driving licences.
The hike also made Motor Vehicles Department incur a loss of revenue as some of the officials, unaware of the hike, failed to charge additional fees on the speed post.To ensure that the documents were handed over to vehicle owners, the Transport Department had introduced the service of delivering RC books and driving licence documents through speed post, a few years ago.According to an MVD official, the price hike in the postal charges came into effect from October 1. Since there was no official direction regarding this, on the first day the department has incurred a loss of Rs 50,000 across the state.
The Traffic Commissioner came out with a circular to charge additional price after four days. By this time the department has lost about Rs 2 lakh.
The price of the speed post varies according to weight and the distance to be covered for delivering the post. Senior officials said that they have updated the software increasing the postal charge by Rs 10 last week itself and the problem has been solved.
The surge in the price has taken place for the first time in seven years in 2005. On an average about 3-5 lakhs driving licences are issued a year through speed post. About 10 lakhs of registrations of vehicle are sent to the owner annually. The officials estimate that about 5000 documents are sent through speed post on a single day.
Transport Commissioner P Vijayanand said that the department has started additional charge from the public. He said that if the speed post is non-profitable other means of delivering the documents will considered.
“On the first day there were some loss of revenue as most of the officers were unaware of the hike. But the issue has been resolved as we take additional charge from the public. For more convenience, the public can bring the stamp according to the weight and distance of delivery. Those pending document for which we have not yet charged additional fees would be sent by registered mail. Those who fear that sending registered mail is not safe can approach us and we will hand them over the document. In such cases the direction has been given that licence should be given only to persons to whom the letter was to be sent and not to the agents,” Vijayanand said.
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