The Law on Post Office was renamed the Law on Postal Communications and was adopted in the final reading by Parliament. The obligation for the state-run company “Moldova’s Post Office” to be responsible for the distribution of periodicals was yet added to it, IPN reports.

Stefan Creanga, head of the commission on economy, budget and finance, said in Parliament that the amendments by which the bill was renamed were accepted and there were introduced the notions of periodical and distribution of periodicals as a service that will be mandatory for the postal service. The periodicals will be distributed based on contracts between media outlets and the postal service.

After the bill was passed in the first reading, civil society organizations expressed their concern about the fact that this said nothing about the distribution of periodicals. They asked that the law should specify that “Moldova’s Post Office” must announce the tariffs for receiving and distributing periodicals at least 30 days before the signing of the contracts.

After the bill was passed in the first reading, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology said the activity of distributing publications generates essential losses to “Moldova’s Post Office”. In 2015 alone, the company sustained losses of 10.9 million lei after distributing periodicals by subscription or retailing. The given losses this year are projected to total 12 million lei. The setting of tariffs lower than the costs is the main cause for such a situation.