Tuesday, August 4, 2015

New Postal Charges in Mauritius

New postal charges are effective in Mauritius since Saturday 1 August 2015.

Souvenir cover hand stamped at Grand Bay Post Office on 31 July 2015


Souvenir cover hand stamped at Port Louis Centre Post Office on 1 August 2015


Under this change in charges, posting an inland (including Rodrigues) priority unregistered letter of up to 20g now costs Rs10 instead of Rs7 previously.  Each additional 20g or fraction thereof still costs an extra Rupee (R1).

Inland registration fee has increased from Rs14 to Rs17, from Rs40 to Rs50 for foreign letters; advice of delivery (AR) fee from Rs14 to Rs17 for both inland and foreign letters; inland express fee from Rs20 to Rs22.

Souvenir cover registered at Grand Bay Post Office on 31 July 2015

Souvenir cover registered at Port Louis Centre Post Office on 1 August 2015


Fees for inland printed papers have changed from Rs6 for the first 50g and Rs4 for each additional 50g or fraction thereof to Rs8 for the first 50g and Rs2 for each additional 50g or fraction thereof. Thus, postage for a 30g newspaper will now be Rs8 instead of Rs6 previously while that for a 75g newspaper will remain at Rs10 (Rs8 + Rs2 now, Rs6  + Rs4 previously).

New weight scales are now in use for foreign letters: they will still be charged according to the first 5g and the first 10g for 1st Class letters and 2nd Class letters respectively, and then according to each additional 10g  and 20g or fraction thereof instead of each additional 5g  and 10g or fraction thereof previously for 1st Class letters and 2nd Class letters respectively.

The new charges hence only work in the interest of customers only if the weight of their letters falls into the second half of the additional 10g for 1st Class and 20g for 2nd Class letters.

For instance, one mailing a 1st Class letter weighing 4g to Europe (Zone 2) will now be charged Rs18 instead of Rs15. One mailing a letter to Europe weighing 10g will now pay Rs18 + Rs13 = Rs31 instead of Rs15 + Rs11 = Rs26 previously. However if the same letter weighs 15g and is still Europe-bound, postage will still cost Rs18 + Rs13 = Rs31 instead of Rs15 + Rs11 x 2 = Rs37 previously. The same principle (but not the charges!) applies to Zones 1 and 3 too.

Sending aerogrammes to anywhere in the world now costs Rs12 (Rs10 previously).

Withdrawal fee stays at Rs10 and mailing literature for the blind within Mauritius remains free of charge.

Only the Certificate of Posting fee has decreased, from Rs8 to Rs3 (for both foreign and local mail).

The last change in charges dates back to 8 July 2009 when the fee for inland priority unregistered letters of up to 20g increased from Rs5 to Rs7 and inland registration fee from Rs10 to Rs14.

Reasons put forward in 2015 by the Mauritius Post to account for an overall increase in charges are:

- constantly dwindling volume of physical mail

- increasing operational charges

- modernisation of the postal system and implementation of more sophisticated tools.

The new postal charges can be consulted on the following link:

1 comment: