The subcommittee has recommended PAC to direct Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to initiate an in-depth investigation into the embezzlement.[break]
The report, which was submitted to PAC on Friday after a year-long study, stated the committee has recorded anomalies committed by the ministers and chairmen of Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) in the process of awarding the license and frequency allocation and has questioned the regulator´s motive in awarding 2G and 3G license to the operators without auction. “It seems necessary to take action against the decision-makers involved in the process of awarding licenses,” the report stated.
State-owned operator Nepal Telecom (NT) and Ncell had committed to pay a royalty of Rs 20 billion each as renewal fee of the license but did not honor their commitments.
Speaking at the PAC meeting, Ncell officials said they will clear the dues only if NT clears the dues. NTA has renewed the license of NT on the payment of Rs 190 million only. “The decision to renew cellular mobile license of NT is legally flawed and NTA should be held accountable for this,” the report said.
Members of the subcommittee have also raised concerns over the revenue dues of UTL and NT, which together stands at around Rs 21 billion, and said the amount should not be waived in any case. The report said alternatives like time extension for the payment can be given but operators should not be given waiver for the royalty they committed to pay.
The committee has asked to auction the license of any new service including 3G, WiMax, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and others.
NT and Ncell are using 3G frequency for free whereas the report has reckoned that the government can mobilize up to Rs 10 billion form each operator for the 3G service. In order to recover the amount from the two operators, the subcommittee has recommended PAC to fix specific amount to be levied on the auction of the remaining frequency.
The report has asked the government and NTA to revoke all decisions taken in last one year which go against the the report´s observations and instructions. The report has further asked the government to formulate separate laws for frequency allocation and revoke the existing Telecommunication Radio Frequency.
Following the 2G-scam in India, PAC had formed a subcommittee of five lawmakers headed by Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani in January 2010. Due to similar misstep in India, in which 2G licenses were issued on a first-come, first-served basis, the country is said to have suffered a loss of around $39 billion in revenue.
Following this, the telecommunication minister has lost his job and has been sent to jail along with several senior other politicians and corporate honchos.
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