asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will state the percentage by which postal, telegraph and telephone rates have increased since September, 1939.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Post Office Rates.
Since 1939, the percentage increase in postage rates is as follows:—
Inland, first and second-class mail, 42 per cent.; foreign, first and second-class mail, 80 per cent.
Air mail rates varied according to the country of destination in 1939, whereas now first-class mail is conveyed by air to Europe at the ordinary surface postage rate, and there is a unified rate for air mail to all other countries. Our main air mail traffic outside Europe is to the United States, and the new unified rate is only 7 per cent. over the 1939 rate to the United States of America.
In the parcel post, rates have increased 56.5 per cent. on parcels for delivery within the State, and 65 per cent. on parcels for delivery in Great Britain. Percentage increases in foreign parcel rates cannot be given precisely as these vary considerably from country to country. The main foreign parcel traffic is to the United States, the rates for which are about 60 per cent. over the 1939 rates.
There has been no increase in the inland telegraph rates since 1939. The rates for foreign telegrams are fixed individually for the different countries, but the overall average increase in rates for telegrams in the European system since 1939 is approximately 46 per cent. In the extra-European system, there were some alterations upwards and downwards as a result of international agreement to simplify the categories of telegrams. The overall rates, are, however, about the same as they were in 1939.
Telephone rates were increased by 5 per cent. as from 1st October, 1942, and by a further 20 per cent. as from 1st October, 1951.