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State Duma to consider first reading of Postal Service Bill

MOSCOW, March 12, 4:11 /ITAR-TASS/. A government-presented Postal Service Bill will be considered by the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament in the first reading here on Wednesday.

Earlier, the parliamentarians, the leadership of the Communications Ministry, as well as experts in the sector admitted that the document required a serious follow-on revision but agreed that it must be adopted in the first reading as soon as possible.

"We are open to all proposals. Together with a State Duma Committee, the Post of Russia, and the expert council we must refine it up to a state of quality," Mikhail Yevrayev, Deputy Minister of Communications, emphasized.

Alexei Mitrofanov, head of the House committee on information policy, information technologies and communications, said, for his part, that "the Bill must be adopted in the first reading and amendments have got to be prepared for a second reading".

The RF government referred the Postal Service Bill to the State Duma at the end of December 2013. The document introduces a number of new notions, including a "virtual post office", and "automated parcel terminal", a "small package", "Postal and banking services", and "e-letter". According to the Bill, the postal service will be divided into a general-purpose one and forwarding. The general-purpose service will include all types of mail small packages, parcels and money orders. The forwarding service will include delivery of postcards, letters, small packages, and parcels within a definite area.

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