The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) failed to collect around Rs393 million(US$4.76million) in Annual Regulatory Dues (ARDs) from telecom companies during the fiscal year 2020-21, an audit report has found.
A report by the auditor general of Pakistan of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) showed that telecom companies owe the federal government more than Rs393 million.
Of this, telecom services providers owe the government around Rs14 million in annual Licence fees and Rs37 million in basic telephone fees.
Arrears in terms of Universal Service Fund (USF) charges amount to Rs227 million and Rs78 million in Research and Development contributions.
Similarly, in Annual Spectrum Fee (ASF), the telecommunication firms owe the regulator around Rs26 million and another Rs8 million in Annual License Fee (ALF) – LDI.
The audit pointed out the discrepancy to to PTA’s management in November 2021. The authority, however, responded that most of the outstanding dues had been challenged by the operators in court.
However, the audit reports show that in every instance where dues were challenged, the courts had remanded the petitions back to the PTA.
Meanwhile, the National Telecom Corporation (NTC) had agreed to pay the balance but so far it has not paid anything.
While the audit authorities are looking into the cases, It has been recommended to review and recover the dues from telecommunication services operators.https://www.samaaenglish.tv
