NT pays Rs 740m 3G fee‚ issue still unresolved

KATHMANDU:

Nepal Telecom (NT) has paid Rs 740 million 3G frequency fee to the government. With this, the company cleared most of its old dues in spectrum fee; however, it is still yet to settle the row regarding the 3G charge.

The 3G fee which NT paid recently does not include Rs 240 million from the fiscal year 2006-07 — the year in which the state-owned company acquired the spectrum — and has to be cleared as per the existing provision.

NT has demanded that the government either waive the fee of the first year or charge only from the date when the spectrum was assigned. It was allocated 2x10 MHz 3G spectrum in May 2006, which means the telecom acquired the spectrum for only about a month-and-a-half of that fiscal year.

According to Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), even though NT paid Rs 740 million recently, the issue of the first fiscal year is yet to be settled. “The company has demanded that the government charge 3G fee only for one and a half months of the first fiscal year, instead of slapping the charge for the entire year,” said Ananda Raj Khanal, officiating chief of NTA. He added that the Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee will decide on NT’s call.

NT paid the spectrum fee after Office of the Auditor General revealed arrears of over Rs one billion under NTA, including 3G fee. Two years ago, out of the total outstanding dues of Rs 1.44 billion for period starting fiscal 2006-07 to 2011-12, NT had paid only Rs 488 million citing it incurred a loss in 3G service in initial years, when the service was on trial.

The Nepali fiscal year starts in mid-July each year. The Rs 488 million paid was only for period after March 2010, when NT launched 3G commercially, to the end of fiscal 2011-12. Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson of NT said since 3G spectrum was initially assigned for one year for network test, there should not be any charge.

Despite reservations, Ncell — which also operates 3G service — has cleared all its 3G dues. However, the private firm had also demanded that government make a consideration for the period when the service was not commercially launched, and that the amount it paid should be adjusted later. Ncell was assigned 3G spectrum in July 2007 and had started the service commercially in May 2010.

Meanwhile, NT has paid the second installment of GSM mobile licence renewal fee. As per provision, both NT and Ncell have to pay their mobile permit renewal fees of Rs 20 billion each in eight installments over an eight year period. A Cabinet meeting last year had decided to this effect.

Pradhan said that the company last week paid the second installment after deducting taxes to be paid to the government. NT and Ncell require paying Rs 2.5 billion to the government as permit renewal fee annually based on the Cabinet’s decision. NTA officials said since Ncell had paid Rs five billion in fiscal year 2012-13, the company had no dues under licence renewal for current fiscal year 2013-14.

Source: The Kathmandu Post