Royal Mail Customs handling Fee Response

[obiter dictum]

Over the last few weeks we have been debating the legality of Royal Mail imposing handling Charges when HMRC levy duty.

 

THIS IS THE RESPONSE DIRECT FROM ROYAL MAIL HQ

Dear Mr XXXXX

 

Thank you for contacting Royal Mail.

 

Royal Mail Group is authorised under the Postal Packets (Customs and Excise) Regulations 1986 and section 105 of the Postal Services Act 2000 to clear postal items through customs where no other arrangements have been made. This involves paying duty and taxes to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) up front, dealing with all relevant HMRC paperwork and record keeping, and processing the payment collected from the recipient.

 

Our charges have been created as part of the Overseas Letter Post Scheme, created under Section 89 of the Postal Services Act 2000.

 

Certain Royal Mail products or services have the charges, terms and conditions detailed in documents called ‘Schemes’. These Schemes are published under the Postal Services Act 2000 and mean that it is not necessary for Royal Mail to have individual contracts with each and every customer purchasing these products or using these services.

 

You can read the relevant legislation at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/contents and our Overseas Letter Post Scheme can be found at http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/RoyalMail-Overseas-Letter-Post%20Scheme-30March2015.pdf

 

As you can see these charges have been created legally under the relevant laws and Royal Mail are legally authorised to recover both the customs charges levied and any other charges payable.

 

I hope you have found this information helpful. If there is anything else we can help you with though, please let us know.

 

Regards

[obiter dictum]

This will cover all the other courier companies as well who levy a handling charge on behalf of HMRC

 

The Postal Services Act has now been amended

 

In place of Universal Service Provider, "Postal Operator" has now been inserted

 

 

So the likes of TNT, DHL, FedEx etc can lawfully impose this handlig fee. It is up to the recipient which carrier they decide to use as to the cost of that handling fee