SLT bills reduced by 8.72 per cent

Uditha Kumarasinghe and Nadira Gunatilleke

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has introduced a 8.72 per cent reduction on all its bills including local tariffs and rentals with effect from 01st January to 31st October 2007.

The reduction introduced from January up to October 2007 will be reflected in the November bill.

The SLT will introduce a new tariff structure which would be applicable from 01st November 2007, Director General of Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) Kanchana Ratwatte told the weekly Cabinet press briefing yesterday.

With the introduction of the new tariff structure, the SLT will move to time based (per second billing) on SLT calls which will be a simple structure compared to the present unit based structure. Therefore the customers will not be called upon to pay for unutilized time-pay as they speak, he said.

The SLT has also decided to reduce the present Rs.495 residential rental to Rs.345 and Rs.1250 business rental to Rs.950 with effect from November 1.

As a further relief, a billing discount will also be provided to the subscribers to a maximum of Rs.400. Thus Rs.400 worth of call charges per month will be discounted from the bill of SLT phone users, he said.

The SLT has also reduced the present price of its CDMA phones from Rs.18,000 to Rs.12,000.

Ratwatte said the tariff revision of SLT in 2003 was challenged by the Consumers Association of Lanka in the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal held with the Consumers Association of Lanka.

However,SLT appealed against the order of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court informed the TRCSL to facilitate a process of negotiations between the Consumers Association of Lanka and the SLT, he said.

The TRCSL facilitated six rounds of negotiations between the parties successfully which were ended up with a negotiated formula. In view of the instructions given by the Supreme Court, SLT submitted several tariff proposals, he added.