Monrovia – Telecoms giant Orange has petitioned the Civil Law court at the Temple of Justice to review a recent mandate by the Liberia Telecommunications Authority which calls for new tariffs on voice and data.
Report by Augustine T. Tweh-00231775524647 / [email protected]
According to the petition for judicial review, Orange claims that LTA does not have the legal authority to impose the floor price and surcharges on telecoms company.
LTA’s new regulation – Order: 0016-02-25-19 – establishes price floors for On-Net Voice and Data services and a regulatory fee on telecommunication goods and services. It was signed on February 25, 2019.
With the latest regulation, GMS operators will now be compelled to charge a minimum of US$0.0156 per minute. This is 100 percent increment to the existing charge on on-net voice call which offers subscribers a 72-hour open line for US$1.00. The new floor price would eventually lead to cancellation of the three days free calls.
There is also a 50 percent increase in the price of data service. The new floor price is set at US$0.0218 per megabyte.
But in its petition to the Civil Law Court, Orange Liberia contends that the imposition of the charges on the company will affect the common people.
It added that prior to the mandate of LTA, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Posts and Telecoms instructed the entity to stop imposing an additional surcharge on all local calls until the committee and the Board of Commissioners (BoC) hold a consultative meeting.
“Petitioner is aware that up to today’s date the meeting has not been had; therefore, on the strength of the instruction of the House’s Committee with oversight of respondents, the surcharge imposition ought to be suspended,” the petition states.
“While petitioner’s protest and the most recent letter from its lawyer are pending unresolved and in the face of the suspension ordered by the House’s Committee on Posts and Telecommunications, respondent has commenced enforcing its order and has threatened to penalized petitioner of what it termed as being noncompliant.”
It adds that previous case of this nature was determined by the court in 2015 drawing the government’s attention to the situation which prompted the passage of an act forbidding the LTA from exercising any authority or taking any action legally to impose and implement surcharges.
“Petitioner contends that despite the regulatory authority vested in the respondent over the telecommunications sector and its authority to issue regulations in exercise of said authority, LTA cannot determine and impose surcharge as same is not within its regulatory authority since in fact the Honorable Legislature with the approval of the President of Liberia of the republic, corrected what they saw as a problem when they removed through the “Act To Repeal Section 1165 (Mobile Telephone Usage) And To Amend section 1021(B) (2) Or The Revenue Code As Amended 2016 which was approved on July 13, 2017 and published by Authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 29,2017,” Petition said.
In response to the petition, LTA said it is the independent national regulator with the power and authority to undertake the regulation of telecommunications services and the telecommunications sector in the country through the issuance of rules, orders, and regulations.
LTA argues the company’s petition for judicial review is in “bad faith” when it accepts certain provisions of its license and attempts to reject other provisions.
Argues LTA: “Petitioner has been deceptive in this matter when, in a letter dated April 15, 2019 petitioner assured respondent that it is in full compliance of the floor price and regulatory fee, therefore the LTA Order: 0016-02-25-19 does not apply to them”
“Respondent says that while it is encouraged to conduct public consultations prior to issuing any order, rule or regulation or any other exercise of its authority that is likely to have any substantial impact on network operators, service providers and other market participants or the general public, respondent retains that final decision-making authority as the independent regulator, Section 5.4 of the Guidelines for Consultation process to Develop Regulations.”