Licence holders set to pay lower universal service obligation tax

In the era of the NBTC’s predecessor, the National Telecommunications Commission, major licence holders paid 4 per cent of revenue to the |USO fund if they declined to establish telecom service in remote areas. |The NTC used the fund to pay other operators to invest in telecom services in such areas. The NBTC, which got off the ground six months ago, has yet |to collect the USO fee, pending completion of the new regulations relating |to it.
The telecom committee will present its draft of the new USO regulations for the NBTC board’s approval soon.
Earlier, the committee had planned an even lower tax but changed its mind out of concern that it would miss the USO fund target of Bt20 billion within five years, said the NBTC commissioner in charge of the draft, Sukit Khamasundara.
He said the drafting subcommittee also considered whether the USO tax should also be levied on private telecom concession holders. That idea is expected to be strongly opposed by the concession holders.
According to the draft, the USO tax will be levied on all types of licence holders, unlike before when it was levied only on companies with Type 2 or Type 3 licences. Type 2 licensees may or may not have their own networks and their competition could affect the public on a limited scale. Type 3 licence holders such as TOT and CAT Telecom have their own networks and their competition could widely impact the public.
Licence holders earning annual revenue of less than Bt20 million will |not be subject to the USO tax. For those earning more, the tax will be levied only that portion of their revenue in excess of Bt20 million. For example, if a firm brings in Bt21 million, its USO payment will be based on only Bt1 million.
The USO contributions will be passed to the NBTC’s fund for research and development of broadcasting and telecom industries for public benefit. The fund currently has about Bt2.5 billion.