During the working session organised last week, the government of Romania approved the draft law initiated by the National Regulatory Authority for Communications in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and designed, mainly, to amend the legal provisions regarding the calculation of the monitoring tariff owed by the providers of electronic communications networks and services and by the providers of postal services. The draft law will be submitted to Parliament debate in order to be adopted under emergency regime.
Currently, the legal framework regulating the operation of ANRC provides that the monitoring tariff owed to the Authority for the surveillance and control activity on the market of electronic communications and postal services be calculated not exclusively based on the incomes resulted from the activities on these markets, but considering all the provider’s incomes, irrespective of the activity they resulted from.
The providers of electronic communications network or services and of postal services have considered this method of establishing the calculation base for the monitoring tariff to be unfair. The new law will prevent this situation as it establishes a calculation method based on the incomes from the activities monitored by ANRC alone and according to the period during which the electronic communications networks or services and the postal services are provided.
The draft law initiated by ANRC and MCTI gives the providers two choices:
a) calculate the monitoring tariff as a percentage of the whole turnover (as it has been calculated so far);
b) calculate the monitoring tariff as a percentage of the incomes resulted from the provision of electronic communications or of postal services, where the respective provider keeps separate accounts for the activity of providing electronic communications or postal services, which shall be audited under the conditions established by ANRC.
These provisions shall apply both to the providers of electronic communications networks and services, and to the providers of postal services.
Moreover, the draft law abrogates the provisions regarding the additional monitoring tariff owed by the providers of postal services or by the providers of electronic communications networks or services upon cessation of activity in these sectors.
Furthermore, the persons who intend to provide networks or services of electronic communications using radio-electric frequencies exclusively for their own needs shall not have the obligation to notify ANRC.
In 2004, the monitoring tariff collected by ANRC was calculated based on a 0.2% percentage of the whole 2003 turnover of the authorised providers of electronic communications networks or services and on a 0.1% percentage of the postal service providers’ turnover.