According to NTA officials, Rs 10.05 billion of RTDF is deposited in 17 commercial banks. NTA has collected another Rs 1.87 billion in RTDF in this fiscal year.Purushottam Khanal, director of NTA, said the remaining Rs 1.87 billion will also be deposited in commercial banks.
NTA has collected Rs 1.11 billion from Ncell, Rs 750 million from Nepal Telecom (NT), Rs 10 million from WorldLink and Rs 1 million from Mercantile into the fund for 2014/15. The contribution is subject to change on the basis of final audit report of telecom operators and Internet service providers (ISPs). Nepal Satellite, Smart Telecom and United Telecom Limited are yet to deposit amount collected as RTDF to NTA. Similarly, NTA has given some ISPs three more months to submit RTDF, responding to their application for term extension.
NTA has deposited the amount collected in RTDF in Everest Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Siddhartha Bank, Laxmi Bank, NIC Asia Bank, Nepal Bank, Nabil Bank, Rastriya Banijya Bank, Agriculture Development Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Sanima Bank, Century Commercial Bank, Global IME Bank, Janata Bank, Machhapuchre Bank, Prime Commercial Bank, and Kumari Bank. These banks provide interest return in the range of 4 to 8.51 percent interest depending on liquidity fluctuation.
"We have substantial amount of money in RTDF. But management of the fund is becoming a difficult task for us as banks are reluctant to accept it as deposit, citing liquidity surplus in the banking system," said Khanal.
NTA had recently sought quotation from banks to deposit Rs 10 billion of RTDF and NTA's other funds. But only 11 banks have submitted quotation that too for Rs 2 billion only.
"The government should allow us to invest the amount collected in RTDF in other productive areas so that we can get more returns," an NTA official told Republica.
NTA cannot invest money collected in RTDF as there is no clear policy on spending and disbursement modality. Lack of clear policy, indifference by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology, and lack of clear definition of 'rural' in the Telecommunication Act, among others, is hindering proper mobilization of RTDF.
"Our major priority is on taking telecommunication services to remote and rural areas," Digambar Jha, chairman of NTA, said.
NTA has disbursed only 2.6 percent of Rs 10.05 billion collected in RTDF so far. It provided Rs 265.69 million to Nepal Telecom as per the cabinet decision. Similarly, Rs 2.95 million was disbursed to Subisu Cable Net for providing Internet service in rural and remote areas.
Using the money, NT expanded its service at VDC level while Subisu spent the amount in its 'Connect a School, Connect a Community' project.
Similarly, the government, through the budget for fiscal year 2015/16, has decided to use Rs 1.48 billion of the RTDF for District Optical Fibre Network Program, broadband infrastructure development in earthquake affected districts, establishment of model e-VDCs in all 75 districts, and expansion of Internet services to 500 rural, community schools and colleges in this fiscal year. However, nothing has been done to implement the decision.
"We are in the process of hiring a consulting firm which will advise us in effective use RTDF," said Min Prasad Aryal, spokesperson of NTA.
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