IDA is responsible for the administration of the Postal Services Act, which governs postal services in Singapore. Under this role, IDA has the power to grant, modify and suspend licences, and to give directions, issue codes of practice and standards of performance for the sector.

Postal services in Singapore are mainly governed by the Postal Services Act (Cap 237A) (the "Act"), the Postal Services Regulations (Cap 237A, Rg 1) (the "Regulations"), the Postal Services (Class Licence) Regulations 2005 , and the Postal Services (Control of Designated Postal Licensees) Regulations 2012 .

IDA was appointed by the Government to be the Postal Authority responsible for the administration of the Act, with the power to grant, modify and suspend licences, and to give directions, issue codes of practice and standards of performance.

Delivery of Letters

Singapore Post Ltd (SingPost) was granted a 25-year Public Postal Licence on 1 April 1992, with a 15-year exclusive right to convey by post between places in Singapore, and between places in Singapore and places outside Singapore, whether by land, by sea or by air, all letters and postcards, and to perform all the incidental services of receiving, collecting, sending, despatching and delivering of all letters and postcards i.e. basic mail services.

On 5 February 2007, Dr Lee Boon Yang, the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, announced the Government's decision to end SingPost's monopoly in the basic mail services market on 31 March 2007 and to liberalise the market on 1 April 2007. Industry players interested in providing domestic and international basic mail services in Singapore shall first obtain a licence from IDA. For further details on the application procedures, please refer to Licensing Guidelines and Licence Template .

The basic mail services cover the conveyance of letters weighing 500g and below. Letters as defined in the revised Act excludes books, catalogues, newspapers, and periodicals. The conveyance of direct mail will also be exempted from licensing.

IDA will continue to designate SingPost as a Public Postal Licensee and SingPost will be required to perform a set of Universal Service Obligations determined by IDA, including:

• provide services for the conveyance and delivery of letters to any person in Singapore who requests for such services; and
• provide and maintain posting boxes and post offices throughout Singapore;

To protect consumers' interests and to preserve mail integrity and security, IDA will continue to grant SingPost the following:

• access to letterbox masterdoor keys;
• the right to issue national stamps; and
• the right to maintain the national postal code system.

For more details, please refer to IDA's decision and explanatory memorandum on the framework for further liberalisation of the postal services sector in Singapore.

IDA will seek to promote and maintain a robust competition framework to protect consumers' interests, and ensure fair play and certainty for all industry players. Following the postal market liberalisation decision, IDA will be conducting public consultations to solicit more feedback on details of the proposed regulatory, licensing, and competition frameworks.

Express Letters

The provision of Express Letter services has been liberalised since April 1995. Any company interested in providing local and/or international Express Letter services would need to register with IDA for a class licence under the Postal Services (Class Licence) Regulations 2005 .

Local Express Letter licensees providing local delivery services must deliver the letters within the same working day. With the liberalisation of the postal services market, the price floor ¹ previously imposed on Express Letter licensees has been removed. Licensees are now required to ensure that express letters delivered are physically acknowledged by the recipient. These changes are implemented pursuant to amendments made in the Postal Services (Class Licence) Regulations 2005.

For more information on the existing licensing guidelines for the provision of Express Letter services, please refer to the Express Letter Guidelines .

Parcels

The delivery of parcels will continue to be open to competition and does not require a licence from IDA.