THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is looking at a total collection of P3.85 billion this year as against an actual revenue collection of P3.68 billion registered in 2010.

Data provided by the commission showed that collection from various fees for 2011 is estimated to reach P3,855,137,000.

Supervision and Regulatory Fees (SRF) and Spectrum Users Fee (SUF) make up the bulk of the agency’s revenue collection. SRF represents payment of the various licenses and permits needed to operate a telephone company, television, radio or cable company.

The SUF is collected from cellular-telephone firms, providers of broadband wireless access services, trunk radio operators and other entities that were assigned frequency bandwidth.

The SRF collected from the companies are due for payment every end of September. The fees are computed based on the phone firms, broadcast and other entities’ capitalization. They pay 50 centavo for every P100 of paid capital.

There are plans to raise the SRF and SUF but the NTC needs Congress’s approval for this.

The NTC also asked a budget increase but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had approved a budget of P220 million for the NTC next year. “We proposed a budget of over P300 million. We have been collecting a lot and remitting a huge amount to the government,” said NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba.

As of August 2011, the NTC has collected P2.48 billion.

Last year’s collection amounted to P3.68 billion; P3.29 billion in 2009; P3.20 billion in 2008; and, only P226 million in 2007.

The NTC also expects to collect P3.93 billion in 2012.