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By Darwin G. Amojelar Reporter
NEXT Mobile, Inc. has asked the
Court of Appeals to stop the National Telecommunications Commission
from collecting arrears from the phone company.
In its filing before the CA, Next
said it wants to stop NTC from enforcing its 2005 order, which
required the company to pay its supervision and regulatory fees (SRF)
amounting to P135.76 million.
The Velarde Group-owned telephone
firm said the fees are excessive and will undermine the company’s
operation.
The NTC computes the supervision
and regulatory fees (SRF) based on the company’s capitalization,
in which companies pay 50 centavos for every P100 of paid capital.
The NMI said the regulator
committed a mistake when it included in its 2004 and 2005 SRF
computation the increase in the company’s paid-in capital, which,
NMI said, was a result of the conversion of its liabilities to
creditors into stockholder’s equity and, therefore, not part of
the capital stock.
“The NTC should not have
included in the computation of NMI”s SRF/SUF liabilities for 2004
and 2005 the superficial increase in NMI’s paid-in capital
resulting from the latter’s debt-to-equity conversion scheme,”
NMI said.
“No actual cash or money was
infused into NMI. No actual property or equipment was added to
NMI’s inventory which would possibly result in or enable NMI to
expand its business, which, in turn, would require the NTC to
conduct a more extensive regulation of NMI,” the company added.
NMI had already filed a motion
for reconsideration, which NTC had denied.
NMI asked the CA to immediately
issue a temporary restraining order and/or a writ of preliminary
injunction directing the NTC to maintain the status quo and to cease
and desist from collecting the P126 million SRF and P9.67-million
spectrum users fee (SUF), respectively.
It also asked the court to order
the NTC to issue a new assessment to NMI for SRF/SUF based on the
paid-in capital of P339,766,300, excluding the increase in NMI’s
paid-in capital.
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