Supreme Court demands govt explanation on unified licence

KATHMANDU, JAN 09 -

The Supreme Court (SC) has asked the government an explanation over its decision to issue unified licence (UL) among telecom companies.

A single bench of Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi was responding to a petition challenging the Ministry of Information and Communications’ decision of May last year.

Advocate Narayan Prasad Devokta had moved the court on Sunday arguing that the government had introduced the unified licence regime breaching the jurisdiction of the regulatory body—Nepal Telecomm-unications Authority (NTA) and provision set in the Telecommunication Act 1997.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Communi-cations Ministry, NTA and four telecom companies United Telecom Limited (UTL), Smart Telecom and Nepal Satellite Telecom and STM have been named defendants in the writ.

The Communications Ministry had introduced unified licencing regime on May 14, 2012 in a bid to provide a level playing field to small telecom companies. However, the NTA preparing

to issue the licence among prospective small telecom companies after appointment of Digambar Jha as NTA chairman, the regime was challenged in the apex court. It was the second petition filed in the SC against the UL. Earlier on Dec 15, 2012, advocates Uttam Shrestha, Laxman Thapaliya and Prabin Shahi had filed a petition, arguing that the government’s decision to issue the licence was against the law.

“Since both the cases are related to the same issue, we are notified that the court will handle them jointly,” said Devkota. The SC has summoned petitioners and defendants on Wednesday for hearing on the case.

“The court would decide whether to issue interim order for the unified licencing provision,” said Shrestha.

The licence provision, introduced in the name of ‘basic telecom service’, allows small operators to provide multiple telecom services—local telephone, domestic trunk telephone, international long distance and lucrative cellular mobile telephone. The operators who were charged Rs 357.5 million for licence agreed to pay Rs 20.13 billion as licence renewal fee within 10 years.

The UTL and Smart Telecom have applied for the UL. As per the new frequency policy implemented two months ago, the companies acquiring the licence are also eligible to take part in the 3G spectrum auction.

Source: The Kathmandu Post