Conecel qualifies royalties as a tax for just for Claro

A delegation from the company Conecel, that operates in the country under the Claro brand, went yesterday to the Commission on Decentralized Autonomous Governments to expose their case for the new royalties that are intended to be incorporated in the draft Telecommunications Act.

The royalties for the telecommunication companies seek to raise between 1 and 9% of the total revenues of the operators that have a market share of over 35%.

Conecel would pay a 7% of its total revenue, which amounts to about $ 115 million. While Otecel, which operates under the Movistar brand, will not have to pay because their shares reaches 28%, according to August data from the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Supertel).

Teodoro Maldonado, Legal Director of Conecel, demanded that the royalties “relate directly to Claro and that seriously and adversely affects it and is discriminatory.” Maldonado added that the gap that now exists between the telecommunication company is due to “investments made ​​by the operator for network deployment, adoption of new technology in the indicated time and business management. There has been an efficient management of the company that has earned on the user´s preference we enjoy today.”

After this hearing, the Commission of the Legislative Assembly discussed and some changes were proposed to the board of royalties.