BAL BAHADUR KC REMOVED AS CHAIRMANOF SOLOKHUMBU MULTI-PURPOSE CAMPUS Kathmandu, 3 Oct.: Bal Bahadur KC, NC leader ad former member of parliament from the district, has been removed as chairman of Solokhumbu Multi-purpose Campus, a notice published in Gorkhapatra said Wednesday. As claimed, he’s no longer chairman, thenotice said. Nnnn UTL OPERATING LICENCE BEING RENEWED Kathmandu, 3 Oct.: The government is all set to renew the operating licence of United Telecom Limited ( UTL ). A committee formed by the Ministry of Information and Communications will hold a meeting on Wednesday to take a final decision on the matter, The Kathmandu Post writes.. The existing basic telecom service license of the operator is also expiring on Wednesday. The first private sector telecom operator of the country paid the first instalment (Rs 204.18 million) of its committed royalty dues on Monday as per the government decision to collect royalty and licence renewal fees from telecom operators on instalment basis. Following the payment, the committee met on Tuesday to discuss UTL ’s licence renewal issue, but the meeting failed to take a decision. “We will come up with a final decision by tomorrow afternoon,” said Anil Kumar Dhungel, the member of the committee. Dhungel is also a board member of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). In the absence a chairman and a member on the NTA board, the ministry about one and half month ago had formed the committee to decide on crucial issues such as license renewal and cancellation. The panel comprises of three existing NTA board members — Girendra Raj Adhikari, Mahesh Prasad Adhikari, Dhungel and NTA Senior Director Ananda Raj Khanal. “The government has already decided to renew UTL ’s licence on condition that the company clears its royalty dues in eight yearly instalments. So the committee has no option but to renew its licence,” said a NTA source. The source added a formal decision would be taken by Wedn-esday’s meeting, which would also determine the dates for the instalment payment. Based on the recommendation of Communications Minister Raj Kishor Yadav-led taskforce, the Financial and Infrastructure Committee of the Cabinet on Sunday had decided to collect committed royalty and licence renewal fees from telecom operators on eight-year instalment basis. After this decision, both Nepal Telecom and Ncell will also be able to pay their licence renewal fees of Rs 20 billion each for the GSM service on instalment basis. NTA said after the payment of the first instalment, UTL now has committed royalty dues of Rs 1.42 billion. “We will pay the remaining amount as per the new government provision,” said Madan Singh, general manager of UTL . UTL applies for unified licence KATHMANDU: UTL General Manager Madan Singh said the company on Sept 27 applied for the unified licence, which will also allow it to operate the GSM mobile service. The united licence provision implemented five months ago allows operators to take different telecom services, including mobile and fixed line, across the country with a single licence after paying a fee of Rs 357.5 million and agreeing to pay a licence renewal fee of Rs 20.13 billion after 10 years. However, an NTA source said the authority is not in a position to issue such a license any time soon as it is currently in the preparation stage for this new provision. nnnn