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NTA to help troubled paging companies
KATHMANDU, NOV 07 - Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the regulatory body of telecom services, is bringing a package, to help sustain the ailing paging companies at a time when most of them are on the verge of closure.
The package includes reduction in licence fee, revenue sharing and concession on import duty.
The NTA has proposed to lower the licence fee of paging companies by 50 to 70 percent and has already submitted the proposal to the Ministry of Information and Communications, according to a high level source.
The authority had constituted a three-member committee seven months ago and the latest measures are based on the report that the committee submitted to NTA on 30 October.
Earlier, the paging companies, which are having a tough time due to low subscription further marred by the introduction of pre-paid cellular mobile phone service, had asked the NTA to revise the provisions.
Besides, the committee has also proposed that Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), the state-run operator, share revenue with the paging companies, said Dipesh Acharya, Assistant Manager, Licence Department of the NTA.
The companies have long been demanding with the NTC that the operator shared revenue as the latter have contributed significantly to raise the income of the NTC.
Similarly, reducing the duty on the import of equipment needed for the paging companies is also incorporated in the package.
Licence fee for a nation-wide paging company is Rs 5,000,000, Eastern and Central Development Region except for Kathmandu Rs 2,000,000, Kathmandu Valley Rs 2,000,000, Western Development Region Rs 1,200,000, Mid-Western and Far Western Region Rs 800,000 and specific to a certain Village Development Committee is Rs 300,000.
Similarly, the companies have to pay 90 percent of the licence fee for the renewal. They are required to get their licences renewed every five year and most of them need to get their licences renewed next year according to Nepali calendar, which is just five months away.
It may be the poor financial condition of the companies that almost all of them have not yet paid the frequency fee which is about Rs 50,000 a year and royalty collected as rural telecommunications development fund for the past four years.
Acharya said, "Almost all the paging companies have not paid the frequency fee and the royalty yet."
Nepal Radio Paging Company Pvt. Ltd (nation-wide), City Paging Pvt. Ltd. (Kathmandu) Digital Technology International (DTI) Pvt. Ltd (nation-wide), City Paging Pvt. Ltd (Western Development Region) and Agni Paging Company Pvt. Ltd (Kathmandu) have acquired licence.
Similarly, other companies that have been granted permission of operation includes, KATH-Easy Page Company Pvt. Ltd (Kathmandu), City Paging Company Pvt. Ltd (Eastern and Central Development Regions) and KATH-Easy Page Pvt. Ltd (Western Development Region).
Of them, only a few are operating as per the licence and the paging companies have presence in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bharatpur, Birgunj and Biratnagar, and they are operating with great financial difficulty. Even those companies, which have acquired licence for nation-wide coverage, have not been able to expand their services.Posted on: 2003-11-06 09:05
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