Price of stamps rises to 70c but needy to be offered discount PENSIONERS and low-­income households will be ­offered a discounted price on stamps for the first time after Australia Post confirmed the basic postage rate would rise to 70c. Australia Post admitted consumers were ditching "snail mail" in favour of email at an increasing pace and the price rise would only steady its heavy annual losses on mail. However, the discount for the nation's 5.7 million pensioners and concession card holders, which will keep the basic price of a stamp at 60c until 2017, is part of the group's efforts to ease cost of living pressures for struggling households. Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour denied there were plans to scale back five-day deliveries to households by posties and defended the second stamp price rise in four years as vital for the group's finances. "Most of this increase will be paid by business and governments, which account for more than 70 per cent of all letters sent," Mr Fahour said. The average person only sends around 30-40 letters a year, so this will be equal to about a $3 increase - the cost of a cup of coffee. The current stamp price no longer reflects the true cost of delivering each letter and stamp price increases have not kept up with inflation. This 10c increase will allow us to partially offset the growing losses that we are ­seeing in our letters business. This comes as new polling by Essential Media shows that 63 per cent of respondents would oppose the introduction of three-day delivery services. Australia Post's domestic mail operations lost $147 million last year - up from $114 million and $67 million over the previous two years - as the decline in the volume of letters accelerated with more people transacting online. This has seen the number of letters sent in Australia fall by one billion in the past five years. "We are always reluctant to increase the price of postage, but we know it's absolutely necessary to maintain essential services and support our critical retail network of more than 4400 outlets," Mr Fahour said. We are also very mindful of the potential cost of living impact this increase might have on Australians - particularly pensioners, job seekers and low-income earners - and that's why we're proposing the introduction of the concession stamp rate. Australia Post will tomorrow lodge an official notification with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to lift the cost of the basic stamp.