PTA receives Rs24.24bn from Jazz as licence renewal fees

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received Rs 24.24 billion (equivalent of $105.80 million) from Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (Jazz) on account of licence renewal fees.

The amount is being deposited in Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF). With this deposit in FCF, the cumulative deposit by PTA in FCF during the current financial year i.e. 2022-23 reaches Rs 56.57 billion (equivalent to $253.78 million).

The PTA has so far deposited over Rs354 billion in FCF, received from cellular mobile licence renewals and spectrum auction since 2019.

The Authority had earlier received deposit amounting to Rs6.17 billion (equivalent to $27.92 million) for spectrum assigned to Ufone through an auction held in 2021.

Before that, PTA received Rs11.43 billion (equivalent to $52.44 million) against third annual installment of license renewal fee from CMPak Limited (Zong) in line with payment terms of the license renewed in the year 2019. The amount was deposited in FCF.

PTA had also received Rs166 million (equivalent to $0.744 million) against the first annual instalment of AJ&K and GB NGMS licences from Telenor Pakistan Limited (Rs154 million) and Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (Ufone) (Rs12 million) in line with payment terms of respective licences in November 2022.

The PTA has also received Rs1.88 billion (equivalent to $8.76 million) from CMPak Limited (Zong) in August 2022 on account of upfront 50 percent of renewal fee of its licence renewed in the year 2022.

The government has budgeted Rs50 billion for 3G/4G licence renewal as well as 5G under the head of non-tax revenue for the current fiscal year 2022-23 against Rs45.43 billion budgeted for the last fiscal year which was later revised to Rs100 billion.

According to the budget documents 2022-23, under the head of income from property and enterprise - Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (Surplus), the government has projected to generate Rs9 billion in the current fiscal year against the budgeted Rs4 billion for the last fiscal year which was later revised to Rs3 billion for 2021-22.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023