Payments lagging as deadline for telecom fees approaches
Vietnam trade up, but data is murky
THE Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has collected less than one-third of a set of annual fees owed to it by telecommunications companies by the end of this month, with more than 80 percent of the fees so far coming from a single provider.
Smart Axiata said in a statement yesterday that they had paid $3.5 million into two government funds that were established by the Law on Telecommunications in 2016, which require all telecom operators to pay a percentage of their annual gross revenue to the government. That $3.5 million is out of a total of $4.2 million collected by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) thus far, according to ministry data.
At a press conference at the MPTC yesterday, the directors of the ministry’s two funds said that only 11 of the 33 telecom companies who owed money from last year had paid so far, and noted that steps would be taken to recover the money if it didn’t appear by February 28.
Chun Vat, the ministry official in charge of the Capacity Building, Research and Development Fund, noted yesterday that his fund currently had $1.7 million, but he was expecting a total of $7.15 million when all operators had paid their shares. The fund requires companies to pay in 1 percent of their gross annual revenue each year.
Tol Gnak, who oversees the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), similarly reported that his account had just $2.5 million, while he expected “more than $10 million” to be paid in total. The USOF fund requires 2 percent of a company’s gross annual revenue to be paid each year.
The 2016 Telecom Law and subsequent sub-decrees set up the two funds, which have the broad purpose of promoting the development of infrastructure and services in rural areas, where companies might not otherwise invest, as well as promoting research and fostering new talent in the industry.
The two ministry officials declined to say which companies had or had not paid yesterday, noting that the deadline for payments had not yet passed.
In a statement yesterday, Smart, a subsidiary of Malaysian telecom giant Axiata Group, said it had paid more than $3.5 million. The company called on its rivals to pay their fees, noting that “it is also vital that all licensees contribute to the Funds as required by Law” and saying prompt payment would “meet [government] objectives, prevent payments from being idle for too long . . . and maximize them for the betterment of Cambodia”.
The three largest telecom operators in Cambodia are Smart, Cellcard and Metfone. Representatives from Cellcard could not be reached yesterday, while a Metfone representative did not reply to emailed questions.
Cellcard is wholly owned by Cambodia’s Royal Group, while Metfone is a subsidiary of Vietnam-based Viettel.
Gnak from the MPTC said that while the ministry would work “softly” at first and help operators pay in installments, it would also enact punitive measures according to the law if necessary.
The telecommunications law says that any violation can be punished by a suspension or revocation of a company’s operating licence. BILATERAL trade between Cambodia and Vietnam last year increased nearly 30 percent to about $3.8 billion according to Vietnamese state-run media, while Cambodia has yet to report trade statistics for most of 2017.
Exports to Cambodia rose by about 26 percent while imports from Cambodia grew by more than 40 percent, according to the reports. That would be an increase over the recent past – trade volume had decreased for the past two years, down from $3.3 billion in 2014 to $3 billion in 2015 and $2.8 billion in 2016, according to the same Vietnamese media reports.
But there are conflicting datasets regarding the total amount of trade between Cambodia and Vietnam. Other Vietnamese state-run media had reported the 2016 trade figure to be closer to $3 billion. Data from the United Nation’s International Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade) shows that Cambodia reported only $1.6 billion in total trade withVietnam in 2016, whileVietnam reported $2.9 billion over the same period.
Cambodian trade data for most of 2017 were not yet available according Seang Thay, a spokesperson at Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce. Thay said on Monday that trade data could only be released by the Customs and Excise Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and added that the Commerce Ministry had thus far only received data for the first three months of last year.
The Customs Department’s director-general, Kun Nhem, could not be reached for comment yesterday.