The U.S. Postal Service said Monday that providing the Postal Rate Commission with 1999 financial data to support its proposed January 2001 rate increase averaging 6.4% is not as easy as it seems.
But, it predicted that it can provide the PRC with unaudited 1999 financial data sometime in late March and an audited report on its financial results for that year, which ended last September, by mid-April.
On Feb. 21, the PRC asked the USPS to explain why it was relying on 1998 financial data to support the proposed rate hike instead of the data from fiscal 1999, which it noted “ended four months before” the USPS filed its increase proposal.
Lawyers for the USPS explained in a “status report” instead of a direct response to the question, that the people who would be preparing that information are scheduled to testify at the rate case hearings expected to begin in April.
Indicating that they intend to file a more complete answer to the inquiry, they suggested to the PRC that the only way to speed things up would be “to excuse those witnesses from all other aspects of their jobs,” including testifying on the need for the proposed increase, so they could develop an unaudited 1999 financial report for filing sometime in late March.
The audited report on fiscal 1999, which ended last September, is expected to be ready for filing in early April, they added.
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