The government is going to renew the license of privately owned telecommunication service provider Ncell with conditions. Ncell will also get the facility to pay 16 billion rupees for the renewal fee in installments within 5 years. During this period, the company will not be allowed to make any changes in its share ownership structure.

Ncell has paid only Rs 4 billion out of Rs 20 billion for renewal fees. Ncell has got installment facility to pay the remaining amount. According to the decision of the cabinet meeting held on Thursday, the government has set a condition that Ncell should pay 5 billion rupees and 10 percent interest every year by August 15. According to this, since Ncell has already paid 4 billion, if Ncell pays another 1 billion within August 15, its license will be renewed and from next year, the company will have to pay 5.55 billion for four years. The Council of Ministers has decided to revoke the license if the first installment is not submitted on the specified date. 

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Prithvisubba Gurung, who is also the spokesperson of the government, said that it was decided to provide installment facility to Ncell by paying 10 percent interest annually. "For the renewal of Ncell's license, it has been decided to proceed with the renewal process by paying the amount in four installments, and after the first installment, interest at the rate of 10 percent," he said, "Nepal Telecommunication Authority will be instructed for this work."

According to Minister Gurung, other arrangements regarding license renewal will be according to the decision of the Council of Ministers on February 6. The government made a decision on February 6 to prohibit the share structure change that could prevent the ownership of Ncell from automatically coming to the government after 25 years. 

It was said in the decision of the Council of Ministers, 'after the expiry of the 25-year period of the license, in accordance with Section 33 of the Telecommunication Act, 2053, for the purpose of maintaining the ownership of the government of Nepal in the land, buildings, devices, equipment and structures related to telecommunication services, while renewing the license, the service provider company To renew the license with the condition that there is no change in the existing share ownership structure.

The license renewed by Ncell is expiring on August 16, i.e. next Sunday. According to the provisions of the Telecommunication Regulations 2054, three months before the expiry of the license period, on May 14, Ncell submitted an application to the regulatory Nepal Telecommunication Authority with a demand of 4 billion. 

Even during the first and second license renewal, the government had given the facility to pay the fee in installments. Such a facility was also available for Smart and government-owned Nepal Telecom. The 58th report of the Auditor General said that such a facility is not in accordance with the law and it will cause a loss in revenue.

'In the Telecommunication Act, 2053, there is no facility to pay the revenue amount in installments, if the service provider agrees to pay the royalty and frequency fee within the specified date and talks about taking effective steps to collect the revenue, it was seen that concessions have been given to the service provider by paying it in installments,' said the report of the General Account. , 'As the revenue received by the state immediately will be received only in 5 years, the present value of that revenue amount will decrease significantly due to inflation.' 

Ncell asked for the facility of installments stating that it would be difficult to pay the lump-sum fee amid the declining income. In that process, he also reminded that government-owned Nepal Telecom was given a concession to pay in five years after the renewal period. The authority has been saying that there is no law regarding installment facilities for license renewal. 

The Authority sent a letter to the Ministry of Communication on August 6, informing about Ncell's demand. Ncell should pay the remaining 16 billion for the renewal and another 3 billion for the delay by August 16, otherwise the license will be cancelled. 

Earlier, Communication Minister Gurung had been saying that there would be difficulties in expanding infrastructure and services even though the then Cabinet had given installment facilities, but this time it would not be done. This issue was continuously discussed between the Ministry of Communication and related agencies. Ncell's top officials met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and others and requested for facilitation. 

At present, 80 percent of the shares in Ncell are owned by Spectralite UK, whose investor is a non-resident Nepali Satish Lal Acharya. He bought this share from Aziata UK only last year, but the authority has not yet approved this purchase and sale. The remaining 20 percent of Ncell's shares are in the name of Sunivera Capital Ventures, a Nepali company owned by Satish Lal's wife Bhavna Singh Shrestha. 

Acharya, a Singaporean of Nepalese origin, registered a company called Spectralite UK for one US dollar in the UK and bought 80 percent of Ncell's shares in November last year. Malaysian company Aziata Group Berhad sold its shares in Ncell for 50 million US dollars (6 billion 65 million rupees) saying that there is no business environment for foreign investors in Nepal. Aziata bought that share from Teliasonera in 2072 for 1 billion 360 million US dollars (1 trillion 43 billion rupees according to the exchange rate at that time).

There was a debate from the social media to the House about the fact that the transaction was 96 percent less than the purchase and sale amount that happened 8 years ago and that the Acharya couple took over the company through offsor. The government formed a 5-member high-level committee under the coordination of former Auditor General Tankamani Sharma on December 21 to investigate the Ncell purchase-sale case. On January 15, the committee submitted a report to the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and suggested that the purchase and sale of Ncell's shares should not be allowed as it is. In the third point of the

suggestion, it was mentioned that the government of Nepal will own the land, buildings, equipment and structures related to telecommunication services after the expiration of the 25-year period according to the prevailing law, so that necessary conditions should be put in place to ensure the same. According to the same suggestion, the cabinet meeting in the first week of February, during the third renewal, instructed the authority to renew the license only after ensuring that Ncell will be owned by the Nepal government after five years.

After the instructions of the Council of Ministers, the authority refused to approve the purchase and sale of shares of Ncell, saying that it was not in accordance with the law. Six months after the transaction, last May, the authority sent a letter to Ncell and said that it could not approve the purchase and sale as it is. The authority was of the opinion that the shares were sold abroad and the share transaction was not approved by the regulator as per the law, so it could not be approved.