NOW Telecom Inc. of businessman Mel Velarde has asked the Supreme Court to direct the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to re-compute the ostensibly “erroneous” regulatory fees and penalties imposed on the company.
NOW Telecom has disputed allegations that they owe the agency P2.6 billion in spectrum regulatory fees (SRF) and associated charges.
“We are confident that this SRF issue will be finally resolved,” Velarde, NOW Group chairman, said in a statement.
“NOW Telecom continues to appeal to the Marcos administration to effect a level playing field for NOW to compete head-on with China Telecom/DITO and Huawei-equipped SMART and GLOBE,” he added.
In a 22-page comment filed before the Supreme Court on 1 September 2023, Now Telecom said the NTC’s computation of the SRF is erroneous as the regulator based it not on the subscribed and paid up capital of P1.39 billion, but on the P13.57 billion, which is the sum of the capital stock of P1.39 billion and the additional paid-in capital (APIC) of P12.17 billion.
“APIC is not part of capital stock,” Now Telecom said, adding that the Department of Justice and the NTC have declared that any increase in the amount of paid-in capital stock resulting from debt to equity conversion should not be included in the computation of SRF.
NOW Telecom also pointed out discrepancies in the NTC’s reference to a Commission on Audit (COA) letter which claims over P3 billion in unresolved receivables spanning 14 years.
“The crucial COA letter was conspicuously absent from NTC’s official documents, replaced by correspondence with the Office of the Solicitor General, casting doubts on the authenticity of the claim,” it said.
NOW Telecom also said “the staggering amount imposed by the NTC as penalties and interests is not in consonance with the purpose of the law. As the term itself implies, the amount of the SRF collected is supposed to be commensurate to, and is simply intended to reimburse the NTC for the costs it incurs in supervising and regulating the telecommunications industry.”
It reiterated the SRF is not a tax or a revenue raising measure.
The company asked the Supreme Court to order NTC to recompute the SRF by basing it only on Now Telecom’s capital stock of P1.39 billion and set aside the regulator’s assessment letters dated 5 July 2005 and 23 December 2005. Now Telecom also asked the higher court to delete the imposition of any penalty and interest.
