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THE
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Monday
said it could end the year with P2.18 billion in total
revenue collection.
As of
October 1, the commission has collected P1.98 billion.
The NTC expects to collect some P200 million more by the
end of the year.
In the
central office alone, the NTC’s revenue collection
amounted to P1.57 billion.
Of the
amount, more than P900 million was collected from the
phone firms, broadcast and cable TV operators in the
form of supervision and regulatory fees (SRF) on October
1.
The SRF
is computed based on the telcos, broadcast and other
entities’ capitalization. They pay an SRF of 50 centavos
for every P100 of paid capital.
NTC
director Edgardo Cabarios said phone firms contributed
roughly P860 million in SRF payment, while the broadcast
industry paid about P50 million.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) paid
roughly P322 million; Globe Telecom, P167 million;
Innove Communications Inc., more than P100 million;
Pilipino Telephone Corp., P81 million; Smart
Communications Inc., less than P100 million; Digital
Telecommunications Philippines Inc., P44 million; Bayan
Telecommunications Inc., P34 million; Eastern
Telecommunications Philippines Inc., P13 million; GMA
Network Inc., P20 million; and Associated Broadcasting
Corp., P5 million.
In 2006
Cabarios said the SRF amounted between P850 million and
P900 million.
The NTC
primarily derives its income from SRF, which is
collected every end of September, and Spectrum User’s
Fees (SUF), and from the payment of the various licenses
and permits needed to operate a telephone company, a TV,
radio or cable company.
The SUF
is also collected from cellular firms, providers of
broadband wireless-access services, trunk radio
operators and other entities that were assigned
frequency bandwidth.
3G
(third-generation) firms paid P310 million in SUF in
January for the use of 3G frequency spectrum assigned to
them.
The fees
they pay depend on how big the bandwidth was allocated
to them.
These
fees are to be paid on a yearly basis. As they build
their 3G subscriber base, the NTC is requiring them to
increase their SUF depending on their actual number of
subscribers.
If the
firms were able to register more than four million 3G
ubscribers each, they will pay an additional P2 million
in SUF for every 100,000 additional subscribers.
NTC
commissioner Ruel Canobas said that the commission is
currently thinking of ways to increase its revenues.
One of
which is by encouraging telecommunications connectivity,
including broadband, particularly in the unserved and
underserved areas, to increase telecommunications
traffic and, hopefully, businesses that are under NTC
regulation.
The
breakdown of actual revenue collected per region as of
October 1 is as follows:
NCR,
P91.98 million; Region 1, P36.35 million; Region 2,
P23.51 million; CAR, P8.67 million; Region 3, P52.31
million; Region 4, P49.21 million; Region 5, P23.404
million; Region 6, P28.06 million; Region 7, P29.28
million; Region 8, P10.81 million; Region 9, P7.81
million; Region 10, P14.61 million; Region 11, P15.90
million; Region 12, P10.83 million; and Caraga, P5.92
million.
The
NTC’s total revenue collection last year hit P2.1
billion, higher than the imposed revenue target of P1.87
billion by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
This
year the DBM has imposed a revenue target of P2.3
billion. |
