Data rate hike: Senate stops NCC

…Says hike unholy, unfriendly

…Invites Communications Minister, NCC, network providers for talks

…Gives Auditor-General, AG 7 days to reconcile 2011 Federation Account

…Queries non-rendition of mandatory annual reports by FAAC to NASS

The Senate on Wednesday pandered to the outcry by Nigerians against the plan by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to increase the tariff for data by the GSM providers, just as it ordered the Commission to put the plan on hold.

It also summoned the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and network providers to appear before its Committee on Communications to explain the rationale behind the decision to increase data tariffs.

In what seemed like a twist, the NCC shortly after the Senate ordered it to suspend its plan on tariff increase, announced through a press statement that it had resolved to put the plan on hold to enable it engage in further consultations on the issue.

In the same breath, the Senate mandated its Committee on Communications to commence a comprehensive investigation into the matter, which has generated a range of controversies across the country and report back to it within one week.

This is even as the Public Accounts Committee of the Senate on Wednesday mandated the offices of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Auditor General of the Federation to quickly reconcile, within one week, discrepancies on their reports on the accounts of the federation of Nigeria for the year ended December 31, 2011.

The decision by the Senate against tariff increase was sequel to a motion moved by Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, during which he condemned the planned hike in data tariffs, saying it would further impoverish the people.

Also speaking on the matter, vice chairman of the Committee on Communications, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Lagos West), described the policy as not only ‘unholy’ but also ‘unfriendly’. He assured the Senate that the committee would act on the mandate and report back to it next Tuesday.

“We are up to the task. And I can assure the Senate that we will swing into action immediately. We will invite all the necessary agencies that are involved in this policy that is unholy and unfriendly and get back to the Senate unfailingly on Tuesday,” he said.

In his remark, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, accused the NCC of failing to carry out enough consultations before announcing the policy. He also asked the committee to investigate allegations of noncompliance with laid down regulations by telecoms operators.

NCC had in a letter addressed to telecoms operators on November 1, 2016, put the interim floor price for data services at 0.90k/ MB for big operators, adding that “this rate will subsist pending the finalisation of the study on the determination of cost based pricing for retail broadband and data services in Nigeria.”

It added: “In order to provide a level playing field for all operators in the industry, small operators and new entrants to acquire market share and operate profitably, small operators and new entrants are hereby exempted for the price floor for data services.

“For the avoidance of doubt, a small operator is one that has less than 7.5 percent market share and a new entrant is an operator that has operated less than three years in the market.

All operators are to ensure that subscribers are not automatically migrated to pay-as-you-go platform. Also, note that effective date for the interim price floor is December 1, 2016.”

The MTN had already began implementation of the tariff increase, sending text messages to its customers on Monday, announcing the hike in its data tariffs beginning today.

“Dear customer, please be informed that from December 1, some MTN data tariffs will be increased to reflect the new rates set by the NCC to operators,” the text read.

Also on Wednesday, the Public Accounts Committee of the Senate mandated the offices of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Auditor General of the Federation to quickly reconcile, within one week, discrepancies in their reports on the accounts of the federation of Nigeria for the year ended December 31, 2011.

The directive followed the inability of both the Accountant General and the Auditor General to agree on figures as submitted to the Senate committee, respectively, by both offices. The committee chairman, Senator Andy Uba, had expressed dissatisfaction with report of deductions from revenue generating agencies, the management of the federation account by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation centering on revenues inflows into the federation account, concessional rentals in arrears and revenue budget performances of collecting agencies.

The Senate Public Accounts Committee also queried the nonrendition of mandatory annual report by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to National Assembly, the distribution of federation account revenues to federal, states and local governments, as well as the extra budgetary spending on petroleum support fund (subsidy) by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), including the NNPC, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Services, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), among others.

The public hearing according to Senator Uba was equally necessitated by unauthorised deduction at source of joint cash calls of N1, 011, 205,752,063 and subsidy of N785, 908,667,932.18 respectivelyby the NNPC in the report.

According to him, the Accountant-General had informed the committee that revenue collecting agencies of government deduct four per cent of collectible revenue as cost of collections before remittance to the federation account. “He was unable to provide the legal basis for this practice, which is the subject of the query.

He also contended that due to his inability to have officers in most of the agencies, he cannot monitor daily transactions of those agencies.” It would be recalled that the committee had last week, stood down consideration of the queries and directed the Accountant General of the Federation to appear along with the revenue generating agencies to enable them provide a holistic response to the queries at the next adjourned date.