Zimbabwe ICT minister slashes phone tariffs
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 13th September, 2009
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ZIMBABWE – HARARE – The Information Communication Technology minister has slashed by 50 percent excessive tarrifs billed by government’s sole fixed telephone line operator TelOne and matched them to averages charged in the sub-region.
ICT minister Nelson Chamisa reduced charges on a minute phone call on a landline from US$0,10c to US$0,05c in a move meant to rationalise TelOne bills.
The slash is backdated to February, when most clients were confronted with huge extortionate monthly bills of up to US$1 000.
Chamisa said those who received exorbitant bills would have to use this new structure to calculate their outstanding bills against the number of units used.
The minister has, meanwhile, written off all January bills because of distortions obtaining then, partly caused by the concurrent use of the local dollar and the US dollar before the adoption of the multi-currency regime in February.
Chamisa said consumers had up to October 31 to clear all outstanding arrears under the new tarriff regime.
On July 1, the Postals and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe set new tariff regime after slashing tarriffs for both fixed and mobile phone operators. The new tarriff regime followed outrage from consumers who were resisting outright settling the extortionate bills.
The new tarriff regime was then taken to Cabinet for approval. The Cabinet approval was only obtained on Tuesday, according to a source.
“All bills will have to be reviewed from February to end of June,” Chamisa said. “Its number of units multiplied by 5cents. All customers and government departments which we did not give a moratorium, we are giving them until 31st of October to pay up.”
At 5cents, Zimbabwe new tarriff regime is competitive on an average basis in the SADC region where bills range between 8 and 9cents per minute.
Chamisa reiterated that government departments should pay up and warned that there wil be no sacred cows.
“There is no free lunch,” Chamisa told zim NET radio.
He said his ministry was moving towards a “pre-paid platform instead of post-paid” where consumers would buy credit first for their landline.
“Those are some of the reforms we are going to implement so that we reduce the risk of defaulters,” the minister said.
“Customers should not sleep on the phone if they are not prepared to pay huge bills. If they want to assault their pockets its their democratic right to associate with the phone.”
Chamisa denied that he was imposing price controls on the telephone operator.
“Because of the transition, there were huge bills which spawned an outcry,” he said. “The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe prompted us to intervene as a ministry.
The billing was on the extortionate side. We have been pride-killing the consumer. There was need to balance operators’ viability and market fundamentals on one side and the affordability and accessibility of the services by the Zimbabwean public, on the other. Its a delicate balancing act.”
Chamisa said there were no price controls but that the market had created its own equilibrium.
“What we are doing is to rationalise our billing dispensation to make it favourable and viable for both consumers and operators,” Chamisa said.
