KATHMANDU, July 22: A total of Rs 22.162 billion has been collected in the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF) of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) as of Fiscal Year 2018/19.
The NTA had started collecting fund in the RTDF 20 years ago as per the provision of Telecommunications Act 1997, Section 30 sub-section (4).
The licensed telecommunication and internet service providers (ISPs) should contribute 2% of their annual income to this fund every year. A total of 9.334 billion has been collected from the telecommunication and internet service providers alone.
There are 150 valid licensees including telecommunication and ISPs in Nepal. Rs 2.064 billion was collected in the FY2017/18, up from Rs 2.015 billion in the FY2016/17. In the FY2015/16, Rs 1.992 was contributed by the licensees.
No RTDF and maintenance fees charged to customers for internet...
The RTDF is supposed to be used by NTA for the development, extension and operation of the Telecommunications Service in the rural area as per the policy of Nepal Government relating to the telecommunications. The licensees should contribute to the RTDF within the first three months of the new fiscal year.
“The fund was created a long time ago and was not used because of which issue of underutilization of the fund is raised but as we have started some projects, the fund is coming into utilization,” Min Prasad Aryal, director at the NTA said.
“We plan on providing the fund as subsidy where there is a gap and that lacks viability.” A service provider will be authorized after selecting it from the pool of competitors.
The NTA has been utilizing the fund in two projects at the moment: Information Super Highway Construction and Broadband Access Network Project. The NTA has prepared three packages under the 'Information Super Highway Construction' project.
The project aims at connecting headquarters of all 77 districts of Nepal by laying optical fiber. The NTA has handed the responsibility of Province 1, 2 and 3 to Nepal Telecom; Gandaki and Province 5 to United Telecom Limited (UTL); and Karnali and Sudur Pashchim to Smart Telecom.
“The prime minister had inaugurated the project of Province 1, 2 and 3. It is under progress at the moment,” he added. "However, the second package is yet to be agreed between UTL and the NTA."
There has been a physical progress of 20 kilometers in the projects of Karnali and Sudur Pashchim. “There had been some constraints in the project because of delay in permission from the road department and facilitation from the government,” Aryal told Republica, adding: “The road department had instructed not to dig the road during monsoon.”
Under the later project, 'Broadband Access Network', the NTA has plans of making broadband internet accessible to rural areas of the country. He said that existing ISPs should extend their services to achieve the goal set by the NTA. “The RTDF should be utilized to make broadband internet accessible across the country,” Aryal further added.
