There was some grumbling but also some understanding at city post offices on Tuesday from customers who were faced with sharply increased prices for stamps.

Commencing Tuesday the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) increased its prices for a local stamp from $6 to $20 and a stamp for the USA and Canada from $30 to $80.

Caribbean airmail is now at $55 and for the United Kingdom $100.

GPOC said that the increases were geared at covering costs and forestalling exploitation of stamp prices which had been unchanged since 1994.

During a visit to GPOC’s main branch on Robb Street, Stabroek News caught up with a young man who had just purchased a local stamp to post an application letter. “I am not working and to find $20 every time to post a stamp is a lot.”

He noted that a $20 might seem very small in the eyes of many, it had now taken on greater value.

“Is everything going up in this country, from bus fare to stamp just now is something else” the young man said.

Quincy Cooper had just purchased two USA stamps. He said GPOC was doing its best and $6 was too meagre for a stamp, adding that the same $6 did not have any value. He said he supported the increase, but expressed concerns for those who were poor and could not afford it.

Another man said that very soon citizens would stop posting letters. He said apart from sending cards to his relatives he had no other reason to buy stamps since he communicated with family and friends on the internet or by telephone.

However, he acknowledged that it was still a cheap way of communicating with relatives overseas and those who could not afford a computer or telephone would be the ones who would be affected most.

Across at Bourda Post office, Stabroek News caught up with Errol Singh who had just purchased two USA stamps and one local. He said that he was a pensioner and that writing letters had been one of his hobbies over the years. He too agreed that it was about time GPOC increased the cost of stamps, noting that the prices had been too low. He was concerned about the staff whose income was dependent on GPOC’s profit.

Meanwhile, postal officials at both locations told Stabroek News that business was the normal level for a Tuesday despite the increases. According to an officer at the Robb Street location, she had not seen a drop in sales and was not expecting any.