PTA suspends licences of 11 defaulting service providers
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has suspended licences of 11 service providers’ for a month due to non-submission of audit accounts and non-payment of annual regulatory dues in the last couple of years.
“PTA is curbing the menace of grey traffic and willing to punish heavily all the defaulters. These operators have been given show cause notices but they are yet to deposit their dues to the regulator. Hence PTA comes with a harsh action by suspending licences of eleven operators,” sources in the PTA said.
Reliable sources disclosed that the Standing Committee of the Senate on Telecommunications and Information Technology is putting pressure on the PTA to put a hard hand on the defaulters and grey traffickers. The suspension of licences of these operators which came after continuous monitoring, shows the commitment and persistent efforts of the Authority.
The Authority had also asked operators to pay annual licence fees, which has been calculated on the basis of their annual gross revenues, along with late payment at the rate of 2 percent of the outstanding amount. However the operators failed to comply with the instructions and the Authority had to issue them show-cause notices under section 23 of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (Re-organization) Act 1996.
PTA has directed all LDI, fixed line and cellular operators to suspend all telecommunication services, extended to these service providers under any agreement, with immediate effect till further orders.
The regulator said the licences of all the operators shall stand terminated in case of non-compliance upon expiration of one month after the date of issuance of suspension order. Moreover it may recover its outstanding dues as arrears through land revenue without any further notice and initiate recovery proceedings under section 30 of the Company Act.
Source: The News
Date:8/21/2011
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