Telecom market: Dar opposes parallel competition framework

Points out CCP is already working with powers to perform such functions.

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has opposed the proposal of establishing a parallel competition framework in an attempt to take action against telecom companies that are involved in monopolistic practices.

Dar, who is also the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) chairman, said in a meeting held on August 12 that the proposed new telecommunication policy did not clearly reflect the structure of tax rationalisation framework. The policy should be reflective of commitments rather than proposals, he stressed.

He was of the view that the classification of telecommunications as an industry would not be appropriate and suggested that both fiscal and constitutional aspects of the policy were important, which should be addressed appropriately.

Dar pointed out that the establishment of a parallel competition framework, as envisaged in the draft policy, would not be an appropriate step as the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), being a statutory body, had already been working with powers to perform such functions.

Secretary of the Ministry of Information Technology explained that a clause pertaining to the competition framework was part of the policy in view of the legal obligations of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act 1996, which was amended in 2006.

However, the Finance Division secretary argued that financing and licensing targets and goals were not visible in the proposed policy, nor was the distinction between information technology and telecommunication appropriate, and suggested that there should be one ICT policy. He said the Finance Division would give suggestions relating to some clauses of the policy.

The ECC was updated on the process of consultation with the stakeholders undertaken by the Ministry of Information Technology for formulating the draft telecom policy for 2015.

It was proposed that competition rules should be introduced for the promulgation of a competition framework to create a competitive and open telecommunication market, identify significant market players and introduce product markets for wholesale and retail services.

The introduction of spectrum management was also proposed including spectrum strategy, spectrum trading and spectrum assignment.

The third feature of the policy was the provision of general authorisation for over-the-top services and satellite telecommunications with transition from an open skies policy to a balanced approach.

Another feature was communication security for sensitising the requirement of security of telecom networks and convergence - the phenomenon of delivering diverse services belonging to the domains of telecoms, media and data services over a single-digit platform needs regulatory treatment in coming years.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2015.

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