The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said the proposal of telecom operators for a 40 per cent end user tariff on services is not realistic this year.
Blueprint report that the operators, acting under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), in a letter to the NCC, had proposed a 40 per cent increase in the cost of calls, short messages service (SMS) and data as a result of the rising cost of running a business.
The request had been rejected by stakeholders in the industry except the operators.
In the letter, the telecom companies had said there had been a 40 per cent increase in the cost of doing business.
According to them, the telecom industry has been financially impacted by the recession of 2020 and the effect of the ongoing Ukraine/Russia crisis which had resulted in an increase in energy costs, increasing their operating expenses by 35 per cent.
They added that the recent introduction of excise duty of five per cent on telecom services had further increased the burden of multiple taxes and levies on the industry.
Based on their proposal, the price of calls will increase from N6.4 to N8.95 while the price cap of SMS will increase from N4 to N5.61.
This was shown in a letter entitled: ‘Impact of the economic and security issues on the telecommunications sector’.
However, the Chief Executive Officer, NCC, Prof Garba Umar Danbatta, said no action would be carried out on it this year.
Danbatta, who noted that the Commission was in receipt of the request, explained that the commission would undertake cost-based study, which will determine the suitability or otherwise of any hike in tariff.
“The proposal is under consideration
by the Commission and there is a need to do a cost-based study on the market segments. There is, however, no provision for doing this in the 2022 budget,” Danbatta said.
“As the Commission may be aware, the power sector under the supervision of its Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission of the power sector in November 2020 undertook a review of electricity tariffs to cater for the economic headwinds reported above,’’ he added.
“In view of the foregoing, ALTON considers it expedient for the telecommunications sector to undergo periodic cost adjustments through the commission’s intervention in order to minimise the impact of the challenging economic issues faced by our members. Details are hereunder:
“Upward review of the price determination for voice and data and SMS. Given the state of the economy and the circa 40 per cent increase in the cost of doing business, we wish to request for an interim administrative review of the mobile (voice) termination rate for voice; administrative data floor price, and cost of SMS as reflected in extant instruments.
“With respect to voice and SMS cost, ALTON respectfully requests the commission to consider a mark-up approach to address the upward price adjustment desirable for the industry. We have enclosed herein and marked ‘Annexure 1’our proposal in that regard.
“For data services, we wish to request that the commission implements the recommendations in the August 2020 KPMG report on the determination of cost-based pricing for wholesale and retail broadband service in Nigeria. Excerpts from the report are attached and marked ‘Annexure 2’ to provide a further illustration.
