In a relief to booksellers, Centre to align Book Post tariff with earlier subsidised Book Packet rates

Following stiff opposition and much outrage from book publishers and sellers, the Union government has now taken steps to resolve the issue of high postal charges levied for sending printed books through India Post. 

Following stiff opposition and much outrage from book publishers and sellers, the Union government has now taken steps to resolve the issue of high postal charges levied for sending printed books through India Post. 

With the new Post Office Act, 2023, coming into effect from June 18, 2024, the earlier Book Packet, the much preferred service to send books by publishers and small magazines was scrapped and instead booksellers had to opt for the Book Post service, which was costlier. To send a book that weighed less than 500 grams within a distance of 200 kms, it used to cost ₹30 under the Book Packet service and it had shot up to ₹45, 50% higher under the Book Post service. Following this Purushothama Bilimale, Chairman, Kannada Development Authority (KDA) wrote to the Ministry of Communications-Department of Posts in January flagging concerns. 

In its response to his letter, the Department said that the subjective classification of products under the Book Packet category had been removed and these services had been merged into a single product – Book Post. The letter said that the tariff of the Book Post would be aligned to the previous Book Packet rates. 

In his reply to Prof. Bilimale’s letter, Prasenjit Chatterjee, Assistant Director General (PO Division), India Post, said that this was part of an ongoing product rationalisation initiative, under which the features of all existing products have been consolidated under a single umbrella product for each category.

Furthermore, he said that a new, reasonably-priced product called the India Post Parcel had been introduced, offering tracking facilities for retail and bulk customers. “This product can be used to send printed books. Bulk customers, such as printers, can now send parcels weighing up to 2 kg at nearly the same postage rate as the previous registered book packet containing printed books,” he said. 

Welcoming the initiative by India Post, Prof. Bilimale said that the new service of India Post Parcel was very beneficial for wholesale booksellers and said that reverting back to the old tariff was also an important step. “India Post is one of the main channels to take books to the last village in the country and its services need to be reasonable,” he said. 

Book publishers have expressed happiness over this move and have demanded its early implementation.