True wants USO fee deduction for Pracha Rath school project
TRUE CORP has asked the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to allow it to use expenses incurred from its offering of telecom services to the Pracha Rath school project as a deduction for its annual universal service obligation (USO) fee paid to the watchdog.
The Pracha Rath project is a public-private joint initiatives designed to strengthen local businesses via many means. In the case of True, the telecom operator has focused on providing telecom connectivity and computers to targeted schools.
NBTC commissioner Sukit Khamasundara said that recently True consulted the NBTC on the USO fee deduction as some Pracha Rath schools it had supported are the same ones the watchdog had planned to install broadband Internet at.
“We’ll discuss its request in the telecom committee soon,” Sukit said.
According to USO rules, telecom operators have to pay around 2 per cent of their total revenue as an annual telecom licence fee and an additional 3.75 per cent as the USO fee. The watchdog spends their USO fees on funding the telecom service provision in needy areas.
However, the NBTC allows the licence-holders to use some expenses to lower the USO fee. Such expenses include the network interconnection charge, an international Internet gateway leasing fee, a fibre optic leasing fee, and other leasing fees. As a result, the telecom operators actually pay between 2.5 per cent and 2.8 per cent of their gross revenue as the USO fee after the expense deduction.
The USO fund is overseen by the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund Commission.
An NBTC source said if the telecom committee allows telecom licence-holders to use their expenses related to the Pracha Rath schools for a USO fee deduction, the NBTC would have to amend the current USO regulations to support such a deduction. Under True’s Pracha Rath project, the company plans to install broadband Internet in 1,294 rural area schools and provide 39,829 multimedia computer sets and a Internet network to 3,342 schools.
The NBTC plans to install broadband Internet at 3,920 villages in rural villages, with an initial budget of Bt11.5 billion, by next year.
It has also been assigned by the government to install broadband Internet at another 15,000 villages for an additional project.
