ISLAMABAD: As per the information provided to the Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecom here on Friday, the government has commenced returning the Rs60 billion that was taken from the Universal Service Fund (USF) account in 2013–14 in order to settle its circular debt.
Sen. Palwasha Khan, the committee’s chair, welcomed senior USF officials to the meeting. They emphasized the fund’s mission of providing internet and phone services to underserved and unserved areas, where operators are reluctant to enter because of the low return on investment.
However, the committee was informed that due to funding constraints and limitations on equipment imports, USF projects have been delayed for the previous 1.5 years.
Minister of State for IT and Telecom Shaza Fatima Khawaja stepped in to explain that the country was experiencing a severe energy crisis in 2013–14 and that the finance minister at the time had transferred funds available under USF to settle the circular debt when Senator Dr. Mohammad Humayun questioned about the reasons behind the financial issues.
Minister informs Senate panel that the Finance Ministry has already returned Rs. 10 billion.
“The finance minister has agreed to return the amount gradually, and Rs. 10 billion has already been reverted [to the fund] in the recent federal budget,” Ms. Khawaja said, adding that the USF money belonged to the telecom industry and was intended for a specific purpose.
The committee was also informed that the telecom industry was the only source of contributions to the USF fund; neither the government nor any foreign financing were involved.
USF officials told the committee that the fund had completed 68 projects between its founding in 2006 and 2018. On the other hand, 93 projects were completed between 2019 and the present.
Similarly, spending from 2006 to 2018 was Rs 55 billion, compared to Rs 80.84 billion from 2019 forward.
The committee was also apprised of the obstacles that USF faced, such as safety worries, terrorist damage to equipment, barriers posed by provinces over NOCs for the establishment of telecom infrastructure, and land that local people in Balochistan and KP issued.
The senior management of Ignite, the national technology fund, also informed the committee, however Senator Anusha Rahman’s participation through video link and multiple interruptions of the Ignite presentation dominated the presentation.
Senator Rahman, who served as the previous Nawaz Sharif government’s IT minister, criticized Ignite for inaction after 2018 and emphasized that these initiatives had been started before.
Additionally, she recommended that Ms. Khawaja assume leadership of the boards of USF and Ignite in order to lessen the influence of bureaucrats in these organizations and forward the political goal of her government.
