Have mercy on reading public
published: Thursday | June 26, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
FOR MANY years I have been a subscriber to the New York Review of Books which is published some 25 times a year in a format a little smaller than The Gleaner. On arrival it is usually folded lengthwise and put in my post office box. But for the current issue I found a slip in my box directing me to the Mona Post Office where I had to pay $79.00 to collect the newspaper.
The charges are made up of $30.00 for something called surcharge, $4.00 for Cess and $45.00 for Customs Clearance fee. I can understand the Cess charge although I think it is unfortunate that Jamaicans now have to pay to expand their intellectual horizons. But the other charges come as a shock! I certainly would not be able to afford to pay $79.00 bi-monthly for each issue of the newspaper. It comes in a clear plastic envelope, is obviously 'printed matter' and by no stretch of the imagination could be categorised as a parcel. So why is there a Customs Clearance Fee of $45.00 for something that does not even have to be opened and what is the legal basis for the Surcharge?
I am advised by the Central Post Office that the problem lies with Customs not with them, which means, God help us, that the matter is caught up between two bureaucracies. In the meantime, magazines and newspapers are piling up at various post offices since many subscribers are refusing to pay the new, outrageous charges. I am asking the powers that be to review the situation and to have some mercy on the suffering reading public.
