Postal stamps printing from mid-year

Stanley Seneviratne, Kurunegala North group correspondent

KURUNEGALA: The Government has decided to import machinery to print postal stamps from mid this year, said Post and Telecommunication Minister D.M. Jayaratne to the media.

"Under a Rs. 600 million investment, we will go in for the latest hitech printing equipment not only to cater to our own demand but also meet any export orders, he told the Daily News.

"We have to spend around Rs. 700 million per annum to export stamps", he said.

We can save an enormous quantum of foreign exchange by printing our own stamps. In an response to a question by the media, the Minister said that we should be in the full-time business of printing stamps by July next year.

The Minister said the prevailing scarcity of the low denomination stamps was the result of dependence on external sources of procurement.

He said that an export order has been placed on a priority basis with a Chennai Company for low denomination stamps to meet the shortages. Minister Jayaratne also said that the printing of stamped envelops has been stepped up in addition to moving stocks from slow moving stations to high demand sale points in a bid to cater to public requirements in the future.