Kathmandu, May 12: The Supreme Court has dismissed all the eight writ petitions filed by differnt Internet Service Providers, including Worldlink Communication Pvt Ltd. seeking to scrap royalty and Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF).
The bench of Justices Hari Prasad Phuyal and Dr. Nahkul Subedi refused to decide according to the demands of Worldlink and decided to dismiss the writ petition.
With the decision of the court, the way to collect the royalty revenue and rural telecommunication development fee that should be received by the government of Nepal has been opened according to the law.
With the court’s decision, billions of state funds have been saved. The Auditor General had pointed out that since the annual report of the financial year 2072/73, the royalty revenue that the internet service providers should report to the Government of Nepal has not been received, it is unreasonable to charge them according to the law.
According to the investigation conducted by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology last year, it was revealed that Worldlink and other service providers evaded taxes.
According to a report, it was mentioned that nine internet service providers, including Worldlink Communication, have yet to pay an amount of Rs. 2.46 billion to the Government of Nepal, and an additional amount of Rs. 273.33 million, which is pending in the court, is yet to be recovered.
On the basis of the same report, the Ministry has instructed the Nepal Telecommunication Authority to collect royalty and rural telecommunication development fees. After that instruction, the Nepal Telecommunication Authority entrusted the study to an independent chartered accountant.
The chartered accountant submitted a disclosure report stating that some internet service providers have yet to submit royalty revenue and rural telecommunication development fees to the Government of Nepal.
According to Nepal Telecommunication Authority sources, a total amount of Rs. 3.64 billion has yet to be recovered from nine internet service providers for royalty revenue and rural telecommunication development fee.
According to Rule 26 of the Telecommunications Regulations, 2054, telecommunications service providers must pay four percent of their annual gross income to the Government of Nepal as royalty revenue, and according to Section 30 of the Telecommunications Act, 2053, two percent of their annual income must be deposited in the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund.
