In the light of the above, and whereas:
a) services covered by CTT's proposal are fully liberalised under the Postal Law, and their prices, due to rules of the Universal Postal Service Price Convention still in force, must comply with the principles of transparency, non-discrimination and cost orientation, the latter being applied progressively, so as to allow for a gradual rebalancing of tariffs and to ensure the affordability of prices, and are not subject to any price-cap;
b) On the whole, the overall margin of services concerned by the price proposal has been positive, according to the results of CTT's cost accounting system;
c) Given the overall positive margin of services, it is deemed that the price proposal should not result in a margin increase forecast;
d) Bearing in mind that some economic and financial policy measures have created a direct impact on margins achieved by CTT, leading to some fluctuations that may not be sustainable, it is deemed that the margin for 2012 to be considered in the assessment of the compliance with the principle of cost orientation must be the margin corrected for the effects exogenous to CTT associated to reduction of costs resulting from the non payment of holiday and Christmas bonuses for 2012 and cuts in that year in wages above 1500€, changes which were required by the measures of the State Budget (SB), namely those aimed at public companies with a majority public shareholding or entirely public;
e) It may be estimated from CTT's proposal, corresponding to an average overall increase of prices by around 3.7%, on 01.04.2013, and to an additional increase by around 0.5% on 01.11.2013, that the margin for 2013 will be positive, but lower than that estimated for 2012, the latter having been corrected under the preceding paragraphs, thus complying on the whole with the principle of cost orientation;
f) the proposal for different prices of provisions in the occasional and contractual segments takes into account the different costs involved in the provision of services, namely at acceptance level, in the light of available estimates provided by CTT;
g) the elimination of the international economic mail service (except for the Special Regime, which is maintained) does not hinder the guarantee of the universal service provision, namely in the light of the very low use of this offer and the existence of alternatives, in the scope of offers that integrate the universal service;
h) The recent evolution of the postal sector is characterized by a fall in business, namely a fall in demand, due to temporary factors such as the economic and financial crisis and to structural factors associated to technological changes and changes in the use of postal services by users, both companies and individuals, thus forecasts may be affected by some uncertainty;
i) It is necessary to guarantee the economic and financial sustainability and viability of the universal service provision;
j) Available data show that postal services have but a negligible weight in the whole of expenses of Portuguese families;
k) In the context of the application of the principles of transparency and non-discrimination, it is deemed that the publication of prices and of any discounts and special prices associated to the provision of the universal service must include information on all applicable prices, discounts and conditions, in a clear language that allows any user to understand and calculate the price to be paid for the service, irrespective of the service and available modalities of delivery; the conditions required for any person or company to be part of a contract with CTT, to which apply the prices of the contractual segment, must also be published;
l) According to paragraph 6 of article 5 of the Price Convention, the prices must be disclosed by CTT at least 10 working days in advance of the respective date of entry into force, through the appropriate means for the conveyance of information both to users in general and to the respective market segments;
m) The price proposal notified by CTT to ICP-ANACOM on 14.02.2013, which CTT intends to take effect on 01.04.2013, complies with the time-limit for prior notification to ICP-ANACOM provided for in paragraph 1 of article 5 of the Price Convention;
n) The price proposal presented by CTT concerns services that are fully liberalised since 28.04.2012, and that have not undergone any price increase since June 2010. As such, it is likely that this proposal will have a significant impact on the market, thus it is deemed that the consultation procedure provided for in article 9 of the Postal Law, according to which ICP-ANACOM must publish the draft decision, must be adopted, allowing any interested party to comment thereon, and taking into account:
a) Contributions received in the scope of CTT's prior hearing, under articles 100 and 101 of the Administrative Procedure Code, and in the scope of the public consultation launched under article 9 of Law No 17/2012, of 26 April, the assessment of which is included in the “Report of the prior hearing and public consultation on the universal postal service tariff proposal, notified by CTT – Correios de Portugal S.A., on 14.02.2013”, which the Management Board approves together with this determination, of which it is deemed to be an integral part;
b) The opinion of ICP-ANACOM's Advisory Council, consulted pursuant to point c) of article 37 of the Statutes of this Authority, the assessment of which is also included in the referred hearing and public consultation report;
The Management Board of ICP-ANACOM, under powers granted by paragraph 1 b), d), h) and n) of article 6 and by point b) of article 26, both of its Statutes, approved by Decree-Law No 309/2001, of 7 December, and pursuant to paragraph 5 of article 5 of the Universal Postal Price Convention, of 10 July 2008, as amended on 9 July 2010, hereby determines:
1. not to oppose the price proposal presented by CTT by letter of 14.02.2013;
2. recommend to CTT, holding now or in the future mail acceptance centres where the unit costs of accepting national standard bulk mail with a weight of up to 50g are similar to the costs incurred by CTT when accepting the same service in the four business mail centres currently located in Lisbon (Cabo Ruivo and Pinheiro de Fora), Coimbra (Taveiro) and Oporto (Maia), that the company extends to those acceptance centres the possibility of granting access to prices of national standard bulk mail with a weight of up to 50g charged in the referred four business mail centres.
