Proposal to regulate the starting bid for 'nice sim numbers'

According to the program of Session 25, on the morning of August 24, at the National Assembly House, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on explaining, accepting, and revising the draft Law on Telecommunications (amended).

Effective management and use of the Public Telecommunication Service Fund

Discussing at the meeting, delegates highly appreciated and agreed with many contents in the report on explanation, acceptance, and revision as well as the draft Law on Telecommunications (amended). The draft Law has many more reasonable and comprehensive provisions, meeting the requirements of perfecting the legal corridor for the development of the Telecommunications industry, serving the implementation of socio-economic goals.

Participating in contributing opinions, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man suggested that the Drafting Committee pay attention to the contents of completing the synchronization of the national data infrastructure, ensuring safe technical infrastructure, information security; developing a number of key telecommunications, information technology, and digital enterprises. Agreeing with the adjustment and management of new services, including data center services, cloud computing, and basic telecommunications on the Internet, the Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Assembly said that Article 41 of the draft Law is still unclear. The assignment of the Government to specify the list of telecommunications services applying the form of registration and notification, it is necessary to study alternative regulations to ensure more appropriateness.

National Assembly Permanent Vice Chairman Tran Thanh Man speaks. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Regarding some related contents, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that for the Public Telecommunication Service Fund, the contribution of telecommunication enterprises to the Fund is an amount of contribution outside of tax regulations, increasing the costs of telecommunication enterprises. However, the content of the Summary Report and practice shows that it is necessary to maintain the regulations on the Public Telecommunication Service Fund.

In the past, there has been a backlog in the management and use of the Fund. In particular, the Fund has a large surplus while the efficiency of using the Fund is not high. According to the Ministry of Finance, the regulation on maintaining the Fund needs to be further considered in terms of the fact that the annual contributions to the Fund by telecommunications enterprises must be handled flexibly, in accordance with the needs and contribution capacity of the enterprises.

The Deputy Minister of Finance proposed to report to the National Assembly for consideration and review of the regulation of a maximum contribution level, and the specific annual level will be assigned to the Government and the Prime Minister to determine based on the assessment of the remaining Fund balance in the year as well as the needs of the next year and the general operating situation, thereby providing the most suitable level for the new year that telecommunications enterprises can contribute, in order to use the Fund most effectively, avoiding the situation of too much surplus while this is a contribution outside the tax regulations of enterprises.

View of the meeting. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Market principles determine the price of beautiful mobile phone numbers

Regarding the auction of the right to use telecommunications numbers and Internet resources (stipulated in Articles 48, 50 and 53), some opinions proposed to only regulate the issues of principle regarding the auction of the right to use telecommunications numbers and Internet domain names, while other regulations on the order and procedures for auction are referred to in the Law on Asset Auction; some opinions proposed to assign other detailed regulations to the Government for regulation.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that, taking into account the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the Standing Committee of the Committee has revised the regulations in Clause 4, Article 48; Points c and d, Clause 4, Article 50, Clause 6, Article 50.

At the same time, accepting the proposed supplementary opinions on the compensation mechanism for enterprises when purchasing and using resources in the case of revocation of telecommunications number storage and Internet resources to serve public interests, the Standing Committee of the Committee has supplemented Clause 4, Article 48 and Clause 4, Article 53.

Regarding the issue of auctioning beautiful mobile phone numbers ("beautiful sim numbers"), Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that there are hundreds of thousands, even millions of beautiful numbers. The previous regulation was to evaluate each number and when evaluating, a consultant had to be hired. According to Mr. Hung, the cost of evaluating can be up to hundreds of millions of VND, however, when selling, the price can be many times lower. Therefore, the previous regulation was not feasible.

"This draft law has amended the content on the regulation of a fixed starting price for a beautiful number. A beautiful number is given out and millions of people are interested, its market value is very high. When there are a large number of people interested, the beautiful number will be priced closer, according to the principle of market decision. If the draft law on this issue is passed, it will be feasible," said Minister Nguyen Manh Hung.

According to Le Quang Huy, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, one issue is that the auction of telecommunications numbers or intangible resources such as Internet resources has been regulated in the Law on Asset Auction, the Law on Radio Frequencies, and the Law on Telecommunications, but implementation has encountered difficulties. Therefore, from the perspective of law-making, we try to have regulations on the starting auction price, but the Government must have specific decrees and instructions so that the Law can be effectively implemented in practice.

Concluding the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai said that regarding the Public Telecommunication Service Fund, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed on the regulations on the Fund as directed to receive explanations and improvements from the reviewing agency, and requested the reviewing agency to coordinate with the drafting agency to continue reviewing and improving the regulations on the Fund, ensuring publicity, transparency, and a basis for inspection and control.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai requested the agency in charge of appraisal and the agency in charge of drafting to continue reviewing, researching, and ensuring the consistency and synchronization of the legal system, in accordance with international treaties to which Vietnam is a member; comprehensively reviewing regulations, policies, business conditions, and management of basic telecommunications services on the Internet, data centers, and cloud computing; regulations on management, use, design, and installation of telecommunications works; rights and obligations of telecommunications enterprises; connection and sharing of telecommunications infrastructure, information security, etc.

Also on the morning of August 24, the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed and approved a draft Resolution stipulating that inspection agencies are allowed to deduct a portion of the recovered amounts discovered through inspections after submitting them to the state budget.

Concluding the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai affirmed that the National Assembly Standing Committee supports the regulation on the above issue. The majority of members of the National Assembly Standing Committee participating in the vote agreed to pass the Resolution in principle; regarding the deduction level, the opinions and votes of the members of the National Assembly Standing Committee will be sought by ballot later.

According to VNA/Tin Tuc Newspaper

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