Government increases a fine for telecom sector, postpones another

The government has changed two types of fines applied to telecom companies through the emergency ordinance OUG 19/2019 that was passed to change controversial provisions of OUG 114. The new law says that using radio frequencies without a licence leads to fines of 0.1 percent of the turnover recorded last year by the person committing the act for each day the frequencies are used without a licence.

The fine is applied for radio frequencies usage licences as follows: licences for radio bandwidths 703-733 MHz/758-788 MHz (2×30 MHz), 738-753 MHz (1×15 MHz), 880-915 MHz/925-960 MHz (2×35 MHz) get a minimum value of 4 percent of the turnover from the year before the extension, recorded for the CAEN category of the activity times the number of years for which the licence is granted; for bandwidths 791-821 MHz/832-862 MHz (2×30 MHz), 1920-1980/2110-2170 MHz (2×60 MHz), 3400-3800 MHz (400 MHz) a minimum value of 2 percent of turnover is established recorded for the CAEN category of the activity times the number of years for which the licence is granted.

Before the new law was passed, OUG 114 said that those who used radio frequencies without a licence or beyond the licence expired could incur fines calculated for each day of non-licenced use, starting the first day after the payment is due, with 0.1 percent of the previous year’s turnover for each day of delay.

However, OUG 19/2019 postpones until September 1 2019 the application of the following provision, which had been introduced through OUG 114: electronic communications providers who sign contracts for installation, maintenance, repair, access works on properties without a right to access or a construction permit are sanctioned with fines of up to 10 percent of their turnover, proportionally with the number of users served without authorisation, respectively by one percentage points per every 100 users.

On April 9, Business Review will organise the 17th edition of the Tax & Law Conference, our flagship event that offers a full perspective on the latest fiscal and legislation changes that impact the private sector. This year’s edition will focus on the raft of fiscal changes that address the telecom, energy and banking sectors, alongside the latest fiscal trends in the European Union that are also taking ground locally.