National Telecommunication Corporation has projected to generate Rs 3.274 billion revenue from different services by the end of current financial year (2015-16).
The Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication met with Shahi Syed in the chair here on Wednesday where it was briefed by National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), Telecom Foundation (TF), Universal Service Fund (USF) and National ICT R&D Fund over their expenditures, sources of revenue and their projects.
Briefing the Committee Director General NTC said that total revenue by the end of current financial year is expected to remain Rs 3274.08 million, while operating costs is expected at Rs 3111 million. NTC is expecting to generate profit of Rs 163 million in the current financial year.
NTC said that its revenues come from different sources , details of which are:
- Telephone revenue: Rs. 1,665 million
- DATA services: Rs 545 million
- WLL Telephone Revenue: Rs. 87.64 million
- International Gateway Revenue (IGE): Rs. 162.14 million
- Interconnect Revenue: Rs. 8.15 million
- Co-location revenue: Rs. 347.55 million
- Rent of Circuits: Rs. 6.87 million
- Revenue on incoming international calls: Rs. 3.38 million
- Local Access Connectivity Revenue: Rs. 2.53 million
- Joint Venture Revenue VSAT Services: Rs. 8.718 million
- Miscellaneous receipts: Rs. 12.64 million
- other income: Rs. 334 million.
NTC official informed that NTC is introducing portable system which would be accessible from anywhere.
The committee appreciated the performance of NTC and recommended for introduction of more innovation, beyond providing phone facility to government departments.
The committee was informed that the surplus amount (profits) is spent on development of infrastructure. The committee appreciated NTC as being an efficient Telecommunication service provider to the Government sector and proposed NTC to widen their services to private sector as well and assure their assistance in this regards.
Telecom Foundation
Telecommunication Foundation told the committee that so far they have collected revenue of Rs 296.5 million and its total expenditure was Rs 253.1 million.
The profit generated is used to run 12 schools that facilitate children of PTCL lower income employees.
USF
USF briefed the committee that their source of revenue is the 1.5% share they collect from the Telecom companies from their total revenue. The CEO of USF told that the committee that the fund collected is used to provide Telephone and internet services to underserved areas of Pakistan.
It also clarified that the remaining fund is held as a trust by the government and is not used for any other development purposes. The representative told that so far USF has provided telecommunication facility to 310 underserved towns and provided 5500km fiber optics to these areas.
In addition to that USF has established 50 computer labs in Bait-ul-Maal for women empowerment centers. USF also plans to establish 500 Tele-centers to serve as one stop for Telecommunication services. The committee appreciated their performance and suggested to give special attention to FATA.
ICT R&D Fund
National ICT Research and Development Fund work on the pattern of USF and receive 0.5% from the revenue generated by telecommunication companies. However, the fund is utilized for the promotion of Research based projects in ICT sector.
At current most of the funds are provided to the public and private universities for the Final Year Projects of undergraduate ICT students. In addition to this, the organization is going to establish technology incubation centre in Islamabad to promote research in the country.
The committee asked USF and national ICT R&D to provide their details of revenue and expenditure of last three years.
