Monrovia – The Supreme Court of Liberia has placed a stay order on House of Representative’s order to LoneStarCell/MTN to restore the ‘three-day unlimited call’ promotion which was recently scaled down by the company.
Report by Lennart Dodoo – [email protected]
The nation’s highest arbiter of justice has at the same time cited the leadership of the House of Representatives to appear before the full bench on Monday, February 6, 2017 to show reason why the Writ of Prohibition earlier filed by the GSM Company should not be granted.
LoneStarCell/MTN last Thursday, January 26, petitioned the Supreme Court for issue a Writ of Prohibition on the House, citing among other things, that the House was breaching Separation of Powers.
The Plenary of the House of Representatives said the GSM Company lied under oath when it informed the Plenary in September 2016 that the US$0.01 excise would not affect the promotion which was widely embraced by Liberians and should therefore restore the program.
But in their petition to the Supreme Court, the promotion which started April 2015 was temporary and not cast in stone.
The GSM Company informed the Supreme Court that as a matter of business decision, it decided to retain the promotion, but simply changed the component of the program from unlimited minutes for three days to 20 minutes for three days.
According to the GSM Company, the general tariffs set the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) remains unchanged and was in full effect, adding that it has not deviated from the general tariff and continued to abide by every policy, regulation and decision of the LTA.
“Petitioner says Respondent’s mandate to Petitioner to restore the unlimited component of its Promotional Program violates the free market system to which Liberia subscribes.
“Furthermore, Respondent’s mandate is unconstitutional because it infringes on the Separation of Powers Doctrine, as the regulation of the Telecommunication Industry, by law, is reserved to the Liberia Telecommunications Authority, an agency of the Executive Branch of Liberia,” the petition added.
In a related development, the LTA upon review of its own act and LoneStarCell/MTN license based on the mandate of the House agreed that the GSM Company provided misleading information in the context of section 48 (6) of the Telecommunications Act, because “what Lonestar Communications Corporation claimed during the December 2016 hearing is different from its actions after the imposition of the tax”.
The LTA opined that the company’s failure to provide adequate information to its customers prior to making changes to its promotional packages resulted in customers being charged for services they did not order.
However, the LTA also informed the House of Representatives that it is highly likely that service providers will not continue to offer unlimited free minutes calling to its customers while having to pay the 1 cent per minute excise tax.