Bhutan Postal Corporation Ltd., or ''Bhutan Post'', is the company in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...

responsible for the operation of the postal system.

History

Until 1996 the post in Bhutan was run by the ''Department of Posts and Telegraphs'', part of the ''Ministry of Communications'', but in line with the

Government of Bhutan The Government of Bhutan has been a constitutional monarchy since 18 July 2008. The King of Bhutan is the head of state. The executive power is exercised by the Lhengye Zhungtshog, or council of ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. Legis ...

's policy of giving autonomy to organisations able to operate independently, Bhutan Post was created on 1 October 1996. Under the ''Bhutan Postal Corporation Act 1999'' (BPCA), the Directors of the corporation are appointed by the Bhutan government and the Chairman is the relevant government minister. Bhutan has been a member of the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to ...

(UPU) since 1969 and in 1983 they joined the Asian-Pacific Postal Union.

Services

Bhutan Post Mail Express bus and delivery vehicle DSC01860 714 kb

The first post office was opened in

Phuentsholing Phuntsholing, also spelled as Phuentsholing ( dz, ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་), is a border town in southern Bhutan and is the thromde, administrative seat of Chukha District. The town occupies parts of both Phuentsholing Gewog and ...

on 10 October 1962. The number increased from 3 post offices in 1964 to 33 post offices in 1971, via 72 post offices in 1978 (including branch or agency post offices) to a high 83 post offices in 1988, after which we see a decrease in the full-fledged post offices to 47 in 2006, but with an increase of the agency post offices to 43. The latest figure for 2010 is 43 post offices (including the two General Post Offices in Phuentsholing and Thimphu) and 33 Community Mail Offices, the new name for agency port office. Bhutan Post offers normal letter post services as well as domestic and international express services and a

philatelic Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is pos ...

service. A variety of financial services are provided including money orders and a

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company ch ...

service. Under the BPCA 1999, Bhutan Post have a monopoly on the handling of standard letters within the country. The Bhutan Postal Corporation also opened in November 2015 the

Bhutan Postal Museum The Bhutan Postal Museum was opened on 7 November 2015 at the General Post Office building in the capital city Thimphu. The postal museum captures the story of the evolution of communication, transportation and postal services in Bhutan. The sto ...

on the groundfloor of the general post office building in Thimphu. Bhutan Post also operates a transport network within the country and between the border town of Phuntsholing and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in India, which carries mail and passenger traffic.

Special stamp issues

Bhutan Post had a contract with the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation from 1974 - 1992 to produce a number of special issues a year for sale in the international market for which they received a royalty of up to US $0.110 million annually.

Postcodes

Bhutan Post introduced in 2010 the country's first postcode system set up with assistance of the UPU. The postal codes can be searched on the website of Bhutan Postal Corporation.

References

External links