KATHMANDU, OCT 20 - The government has collected revenue of Rs 3.52 billion as spectrum fee in the last fiscal year from telecom operators and other companies using VSAT radio frequencies, according to the annual progress report of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). The increase in revenue collection was possible largely due to fixing of price and collection of the 3G spectrum.
The fee collected by the government includes Rs 1.92 billion paid by two companies—Nepal Telecom (NT) and Ncell for using spectrum for 3G service. After the government fixed the fee last year, Ncell paid Rs 1.44 billion in 3G fee, while the NT paid Rs 488 million. Earlier, there was no specific provision as regards the government charges on 3G frequency.
With the government collecting the 3G spectrum fee , the revenue from radio frequencies being used by telecom companies has increased by over 600 percent. In the fiscal year 2011-12, the government had collected Rs 501 million spectrum fee s from the telecom companies and VSAT spectrum users. The fee collected by the government in the last fiscal year include charges of airwaves used for GSM mobile and CDMA services, microwave links, WiMax, Global Mobile Personal Communication System (satellite phone) and VSAT service in the fiscal year 2011-12, according to the NTA.
NTA officials reported increase in the collection of frequency fee after the Ministry of Information and Communications introduced “Telecommunication Service Radio Frequency (Distribution and Pricing) Policy 2012” last year. “Frequency fee collection has increased considerably as we started charging for spectrum being used for 3G services,” said Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesperson for the NTA.
The policy had fixed Rs 240 million for 2X10 MHz 3G frequencies assigned to NT and Ncell. However, the NT has paid only Rs 488 million out of Rs. 1.44 billion outstanding dues for the 3G service in the period between 2006 and 2012. The state-owned company is reluctant to pay the dues, arguing that the service was launched commercially only from 2010 and that it had faced a huge loss. An NTA official said that the authority was discussing with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) to recover the dues from the NT. The MoIC secretary chairs the NT board. The NT’s outstanding dues to the government for the use of 3G spectrum amount to Rs 952 million.
The revenue collected as frequency fee in the last fiscal year include NT’s payment of Rs 982 million as partial fee for 3G spectrum and charges for additional and maximum frequencies, Rs 1.65 billion by Ncell both for 3G spectrum fee and additional frequency used in 2G.
Other telecom companies like United Telecom Limited (UTL), Smart Telecom and CG Communications (formerly STM Telecom Sanchar) had paid Rs 51 million, Rs 2.5 million and Rs 2 million respectively for the spectrum used in providing limited mobility service, according to the NTA.
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