May 8: With the advancement of the digital age, the Government of Nepal has decided to phase out the postal service in the country in a gradually manner.

The government had abolished the Central Philatelic and Postal Stamps Management Office and scrapped 1,636 posts in early February and has now decided to withdraw additional postal services as per the announcement made in the budget of the current fiscal year.

Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, informed lawmakers during a meeting of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee under the House of Representatives on Wednesday that the additional postal services will be gradually phased out.    

The quota in such services will be scrapped with the retirements of employees, the state-owned RSS quoted Minister Sharma as saying. According to RSS, Minister Sharma told the lawmakers that this policy was pursued following a meeting with various trade unions of the postal service as well as the Finance Ministry and the prime minister.    

As per the revised regulations (fifth amendment-2080 BS) regarding the additional postal services, employees will have to go for a compulsory retirement with the completion of 58 years of age. The positions that are already lying vacant shall be automatically removed with the commencement of the rules, she added.    

The minister said that the relevancy of postal services has been almost over with the development of a paperless era. The postal service is in use just for the exchange of official documents.