By Bhagwandas

KARACHI: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) arbitrarily increased its local call charges by 50 per cent from February 2010 without obtaining the mandatory permission from the telecoms regulator, it emerged on Monday.

The phone utility, which was sold in 2006 to the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation – better known as Etisalat – did not bother to properly inform its subscribers about the unilateral decision to revise its tariff as they came to know of the increase when they received the bills for the month of February.

According to sources, this was the third time when the PTCL arbitrarily revised its local call charges without getting mandatory permission from the telecoms watchdog, the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA).

The sources said that although the PTCL had initiated an advertisement campaign regarding the arbitrary tariff change, the advertisements did not mention the date from which the new rates would be applied.

They said that previously a local call used to be for three minutes and cost around Rs2 to the subscriber. However, under the new tariff, the PTCL charges Re1 per minute since it reduced the previous three-minute local call unit to one minute. Thus from now on a person would have to pay Rs3 – instead of Rs2 – for a three-minute call, showing an upward revision of 50 per cent.

PTA issues show-cause notice

The sources said that despite the fact that the PTCL could not make any changes in its tariff without obtaining a mandatory permission from the PTA, it opted not to inform the telecoms regulator. However, when the PTA came to know about the arbitrary increase it issued a show-cause notice to the PTCL, they added.

Responding to Dawn queries, a PTA official said that the PTCL had launched the new tariff without getting the required approval from the PTA and a show-cause notice had been issued to the PTCL for non-compliance of the rules.

He said that further action would be taken on the basis of the company’s response and hearing.

As per fixed line tariff regulations 2004, PTCL may increase its tariffs up to a certain limit, subject to the approval from the PTA.

He said that the PTCL had earlier also introduced and implemented two tariff packages without the PTA’s approval and in violation of the rules, regulations, licence conditions and directions for which it was warned to be careful in future and was finally directed not to launch any new tariff/package without the approval of the telecoms regulator.

He said that the notice issued to the PTCL says that repeated failures of getting prior approval of tariffs from the PTA, the PTCL has shown persistence in violating the regulatory laws and directives and terms and conditions of the licence owing to which it has exposed itself to the penal provisions under laws – to levy fine up to Rs350 million – or to suspend or terminate the licence and/or impose additional conditions by issuance of an enforcement order against it.

Subscribers base gradually fallen

The sources said that owing to such arbitrary changes that are imposed on the subscribers, the number of PTCL fixed line customers had decreased drastically.

Citing an example, they said between Dec 2007 and Dec 2009, the number of the PTCL subscribers in the city had fallen by hundreds of thousands.

Responding to Dawn queries, PTCL spokesperson Farah Hussain only said that more than half of the PTCL calls were of a shorter duration. The new tariff – Re1 per minute – was intended to encourage those PTCL subscribers who under the earlier tariff perceived the cost of even a one-minute call at Rs2 to be too high and felt discouraged to initiate a local call.

She, however, did not respond to various queries relating to the tariff change, if the mandatory PTA permission had been obtained, if the mandatory public hearing had been organised on the issue, if the public had been informed about the dates from which the change would be effective, if the number of PTCL’s landline telephone connections had fallen between Dec 2007 and Dec 2009, and had the profit of the company fallen between 2007 and 2009, etc.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/6/2010