The state-owned company’s permit will expire on May 11. The MoIC issued the instruction to NTA following a minister-level decision. Even as the agenda of NT’s licence renewal was placed in the NTA board on Wednesday, it has not yet taken a decision on the issue. This is the second renewal of NT’s mobile service permit.
“MoIC has asked us, based on Clause 20 of the Telecommunication Act 1997, to renew the permit,” said an official at NTA. He added that the board meeting of the authority scheduled for Friday is expected to take a decision on NT’s licence renewal. After the renewal, the company will be able to operate mobile services till May 2019.
Earlier in February, NT while applying for the renewal had partially paid Rs 189 million as fee and also sought the intervention of MoIC on the matter. It has been saying that the Rs 20 billion renewal charge was not rational and there was no clear provision regarding the fee for the
second renewal. MoIC can issue a directive to NTA regarding the diversification, extension and regularisation of telecommunications services, as per the Act.
Meanwhile, an eight-member committee under the coordination of MoIC Secretary Suman Prasad Sharma is also carrying out a study to recommend the government regarding licence renewal fee. The study is based on the recommendation of the previous Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to study the international provision and set the licence fee for the second renewal.
Existing legal provisions require NT to pay Rs 20 billion for the second renewal too. From last fiscal year, the company has been paying fees for the first renewal of its mobile permit on instalment basis as provisioned by the government, according to NTA.
Sushil Ojha, joint secretary at MoIC, who is also a member of the study committee, said that the panel too had concluded that the government should renew NT’s permit for now as an interim solution and do as per their recommendation later. “The committee has been given three months to recommend the fee for second renewal,” he added.
The committee comprises two board members of NTA Mahesh Prasad Adhikari and Dhan Raj Gyawali, NTA’s Officiating Chief Ananda Raj Khanal, Under Secretaries Anup Nepal and Phanindra Gautam and a joint secretary from the Ministry of Law and Justice. The committee is also planning to visit international markets to know fee provisions. - See more at: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=MoIC+asks+regulator+to+renew+NT%27s+mobile+licence&NewsID=414249#sthash.TDwrz9Co.dpuf
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