Kathmandu, May 3
The Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology (MoCIT) Wednesday decided to recommend for foreign
exchange to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) companies.
The ISPs on April 30 had warned that the
internet could be shut down across the country from this week. The warning had
come on the pretext that they were unable to pay their bills to the upstream
providers in India that were supplying the internet service to Nepali ISPs as
the MoCIT ceased recommending for the foreign exchange needed for the payment.
According to the Internet Service Providers
Association of Nepal (ISPAN), ISPs in Nepal have about Rs. 3.5 billion due to
the Indian upstream providers. It said that the latter had warned to cut the internet
supply in case the importers failed to make the payment.
The foreign exchange facility was curtailed
for the past six months since the ISPs failed to clear their revenue dues for
the past four years but the ministry was trying to raise it from them as the
Auditor General had mentioned it in arrears and recommended the former to
collect it from the internet companies.
But ISPs claim that since the Public
Accounts Committee of the Federal Parliament and the Supreme Court in separate
decisions asked the government not to collect the dues as it was exempted by
the telecommunication bylaws. However, the MoCIT said that decision covered
only 2017/18 and the companies should clear their dues incurred in the later
years.
However, the MoCIT decided to recommend for
the foreign exchange as the Election Commission directed all concerned
stakeholders to address the issue so that the internet couldn't be disturbed
during the elections.
Meanwhile, the
ISPs and ministry, including Communication and Information Technology Minister
Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and high officials, held a dialogue on Monday, after
months.
The MoCIT will begin issuing recommendations
for the foreign exchange from Wednesday.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 4 May 2022.
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