MOSCOW, September 25 A “financial hole” continues to grow in the budget of Russian Post, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said at a plenary session of the chamber.
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“Perhaps we should do a thorough analysis of what is happening, maybe there are other processes going on that need to be corrected with the participation of law enforcement agencies or others. But it’s impossible, the financial hole in the mail grows and grows, and no one reacts. And we bury our heads in the sand, thinking: it will resolve, it will not resolve,” she noted.
The politician told the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov about this, who spoke to the senators.
Matvienko noted that legislators met all the proposals of Russian Post on issues of regulating the work of the organization, adopting the necessary laws, but its financial situation continues to remain “very sad, and everyone knows it, and no one is taking action.”
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According to the legislator, it is necessary to develop the correct financial model for the existence of Russian Post and take those measures that the government considers necessary.
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"We urgently need to correct the situation. The longer we cover our eyes, the worse and worse it will be,” says Matvienko.
The politician emphasized that mail is needed and must be preserved. At the same time, decisions need to be made quickly, otherwise “the financial hole will turn into a huge hole.”
According to the parliamentarian, the government needs to discuss the necessary measures to optimize the work of Russian Post, and senators will address this issue to the Cabinet of Ministers.
< br />In turn, the General Director of Russian Post, Mikhail Volkov, who headed the organization in December, in response to Matvienko’s words, admitted that the situation in the company now remains very tense. At the same time, he recalled that in six months the post office managed to reduce operating losses by almost three times, open many temporarily closed branches and bring back people.
Volkov also added that 27 thousand branches are located in villages or remote areas. Most of them “have negative margins and have an exclusively social mission.” People and the state need such items, but their maintenance requires systemic support, he pointed out.
According to the company’s IFRS reporting, the net loss of Russian Post for the first half of 2023 decreased threefold — to 6.9 billion rubles from 20.2 billion for the same period a year earlier. At the same time, the loss from operating activities in 2022 amounted to 32.585 billion rubles against a profit of 4.671 billion a year earlier.