KATHMANDU, NOV 13 -The government plans to monitor the tariff for telecom services in a bid to protect consumer rights. As per the annual programme of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), it will be preparing a guideline within this fiscal year to allow it to begin checking the fees telephone users are being charged.
The tariff monitoring plan follows a flurry of complaints that some telecom companies have been charging more for voice services than the rate approved by the NTA. The NTA does not have any legal framework to pursue complaints about higher charges.
According to the NTA, it will check the fees for telecom companies on the basis of customer complaints as per the proposed guideline. It also plans to check the rates annually. Preparing the guideline is one of the major tasks the telecom regulator has scheduled for this fiscal year as per the plan approved by the NTA board recently.
“The tariff monitoring framework is being devised to safeguard the interest of a growing number of customers,” said Ananda Raj Khanal, acting chief of the NTA. He added that after the implementation of the guideline, it would allow the authority to check if the phone bill and duration of service match.
The NTA has often received complaints of overcharging by telecom companies. However; it has no set of rules to check if such complaints are genuine and telecom operators have violated consumer rights.
According to the NTA, concern has been raised over the possibility of customers being billed for a longer call time. For example, there have been accusations that customers have been charged for 1 minute for a phone call lasting 58 seconds.
Khanal said that the annual plan has been presented to the Ministry of Information and Communication for its go-ahead. According to the NTA, many of last year’s plans have been retained this year as they could not be implemented due to legal hurdles created by the absence of a chairman.
The projects listed for this year include preparation of an infrastructure sharing plan, preparing a GIS-based database of telecom infrastructure, carrying out a study on its Connect a School, Connect a Community project, preparing a regulatory framework for mobile number portability and preparing the guideline for a national numbering plan, among others.
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