Wednesday, November 10, 2004, the Government Decision no.1872/2004 for the approval of the amendments to the 2004 income and expenditure budget of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications was published in the Official Journal of Romania, Part I, no.1040.
Based on this normative act, within the ANRC budget for the year 2004, the resources allotted for financing universal service are specifically itemised both in Chapter “Incomes” and in Chapter “Expenditures”. The amount of the universal service fund for 2004 is approximately EUR14.3 million, i.e. 0.8% from the turnover of the providers of electronic communications public networks and of the publicly available telephone services providers with a 2003 registered turnover exceeding or equal to EUR 3 million. The turnover registered by the respective providers was beforehand diminished by the incomes resulted from interconnection services and from roaming services offered on the wholesale market to the mobile telephony providers outside Romania for their users located in Romania.
Between 2005-2010, the percentage charged from the above mentioned turnover shall be 0,5%, without exceeding EUR2,000,000 per provider.
The amounts required for financing universal service shall be autonomously administered within the ANRC budget, separately from other current and capital incomes and expenditures of this institution.
The universal service fund for 2004 shall be allotted as follows:
– 35% for granting subsidies and facilities to low income families,
– 45% for installing telecentres,
– 20% for installing public pay telephones and for ensuring the subscriber directory services and the subscriber directories.
The universal service providers designated ex officio or by public open tender shall have the right to receive compensation for the net cost of the provision of services within the scope of universal service.