KATHMANDU, JUN 10 -The Nepal Telecommunica-tions Authority (NTA) has failed to take any decision on its annual programme for the next fiscal year as its board meeting has not taken place for nearly two months.
After its decision to grant unified license to Smart Telecom was challenged in the Supreme Court, the NTA board has remained passive on taking any further decision. Another court case against the appointment of its chairman Digambar Jha is also pending in the court after an interim order against the appointment.
The Ministry of Information of Communications has authorised the NTA board to take decisions in the absence of a chairman by activating clause 60 of the Telecommunications Act that gives the power to remove difficulties and hurdles in the implementation of the Act.
“As the board meeting has not been held, we have been unable to present and get our annual programme approved,” said NTA Director Purushottam Khanal.
The telecom regulator has prepared a draft of its annual programme which has prime focus on the district optical fibre project estimated to cost Rs 3.27 billion. The annual programme, which is prepared every year, is NTA’s roadmap for activities to be carried out for the whole year.
NTA officials said the board meeting has not taken place due to ongoing court hearing on whether to issue a stay order to the current board. “As per the rules, the annual programme has to be endorsed by the board before the final approval the Communications Ministry for implementation,” said NTA Spokesperson Kailash Prasad Neupane.
NTA’s annual programme for the next fiscal year includes projects such as taking broadband internet to government schools and colleges using resources
available in the Rural Telecommunications Developme- nt Fund (RTDF) under the “Connect A School, Connect A Community” project; procuring automated drive test equipment for Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring of telecom service; and starting district optical fibre project.
Khanal said extension of optical fibre link to districts was one of the major projects for the next fiscal year. “NTA has more than Rs 7 billion in the RTDF,” he said.
Apart from the annual programme, the NTA board is also yet to endorse the Type Approval Certification guideline, decide on issuance of licences to new internet service providers, renew licence of existing licencees, and come up with a decision on the fine to be slapped on licencees failing to contribute to the RTDF on time.
Currently, most of all major issues related to NTA and the telecom sector are under subjudice of the court. The issues include the legitimacy of the stop gap board and its decision, appointment of Digambar Jha as NTA chairman, unified licence, fine on fee to be contributed to the RTDF and autonomy of the NTA.
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