Nepal Telecom’s (NT) licence renewal fee issue has heated up once again, with the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) on Monday directing the state-owned company to pay Rs 20 billion to be eligible for operating the GSM mobile service for the next five years.

The instruction came after the company applied for renewing its service permit last Friday paying Rs 189 million. 

With the authority directing to pay the full fee, NT will have to pay the remaining Rs 19.81 million by Tuesday or face a 15 percent fine as per the Telecommunication Regulation for delay in clearing fees, according to the NTA. This means NT will face Rs 2.97 billion in fine if it fails to clear the fee by Tuesday.

Telecommunications laws require companies to apply to the NTA for the renewal of the licence three months before it expires. After the NTA failed to correspond to NT stating the exact payable amount despite repeated requests, NT had applied for the renewal paying 90 percent of the licence issuance fee. The company’s licence is expiring on May 11.

The NTA board decided to direct NT to pay Rs 20 billion on Monday. 

“Although the NT paid the fee as per its interpretation, it has to pay Rs 20 billion as per existing law,” said Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesperson for the NTA. He, however, said there is a need for a study on the licence renewal fee based on international practices and amending the telecom rules to clear the issue.

After getting the regulator’s instruction in the eleventh hour, NT is set to hold a meeting regarding the issue on Tuesday. NT Spokesperson Guna Keshari Pradhan said the fee is “unreasonable” and the direction has put them in confusion. 

She said the authority used to write them specifying the exact payable amount previously, but this time the NTA did not respond in time even after asking for the same thrice.

Even as NT had long been asking the regulator to determine the payable fee, the authority had not been able to do so, citing the need for consultations and study of the international practices. 

NTA officials said they failed to hold the study as suggested by the now-defunct Public Accounts Committee (PAC) due to the lack of cooperation from the Ministry of Information and Communications and an absence of a chairman at the NTA for a long time.

Two years ago, the PAC had directed the government to collect the stipulated renewal fee for the first renewal and decide the fee for subsequent renewals based on international practices.

And, this is the second time that NT is renewing its licence, which will allow it operate the GSM mobile service until May 2019. The PAC’s order had made NT hopeful the charges would be slashed. The first renewal allows companies to operate the service for a period ranging from 11 to 15 years.

The issue of the second renewal fee holds a huge significance as it will also be applicable to other telecom companies—Ncell and Smart Telecom. After five years when Ncell’s licence will expire, it will have to pay what the government charges NT this year. 

Smart Telecom, which acquired a unified telecom licence last year, will have to pay the same amount after 14 years. If United Telecom Limited (UTL) acquires a unified licence this year, it will also be required to pay the set renewal fee after 15 years.

After obtaining a licence for the first time, operators are allowed to operate their services for 10 years, and after that, they have to get their licences renewed every five years. Five years ago, the NTA had renewed NT’s mobile licence “provisionally” collecting the same amount of Rs 189 million for the first renewal.

Meanwhile, an NTA employees’ union barred its board members from holding a meeting and taking decisions from Sunday. The union said there is no meaning of holding a board meeting as no board decisions have so far been implemented effectively. Monday’s meeting of the NTA Board was held at the Communications Ministry.