The House of Representatives will soon prohibit expiration period for prepaid load.
This as the House committee on information and technology, chaired by Victor Yap of Tarlac, formed a technical working group to consolidate nine bills which proposes to put an end to the practice of telecom firms of imposing expiration period in prepaid loads.
The nine bills were House Bills 2333, 2447, 2604, 2872, 3268, 4654, and 5109 authored by Reps. Carlos Cojuangco, Arthur Yap, Vilma Santos-Recto, Victor Yap, Carmelo Lazatin, Winston Castelo, and Bernadette Herrera-Dy, respectively.
The bills proposes to prohibit, with corresponding penalties, the act of setting expiration periods on the validity of pre-paid phone load cards.
At the same time, the measures disallow forfeiture of unused load credits on an active pre-paid phone account via pre-paid call and text card or electronic transfer.
The bills also prescribe that telecom firms could no longer refuse to give a refund to any pre-paid subscriber whose load credits were forfeited without any valid cause.
In December last year, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Telecommunications Commission and the Department of Trade and Industry issued a joint memorandum extending the validity of prepaid loads for one year regardless of the amount.
Before this, validity period of pre-paid phone load depends on the amount purchased.
But the DICT agreed to delay the implementation of one-year expiration for prepaid load worth less than P300 to give more time for telecommunication companies to adjust to the new regulation.
“However, the proposed measures want to empower consumers by allowing them to use prepaid load cards without limited validity,” Yap said.
Among the proposed penalties being considered for violation of the proposed Act include a fine of P100,000 to P1 million, or imprisonment of two to six years, or both upon the discretion of the court.
If the violation was committed by or in the interest of a juridical person duly licensed to engage in business in the Philippines, the following penalties shall be imposed: a) First offense, P500,000; b) Second offense, P1 million; c) Third offense, P2 million plus immediate revocation of license to engage business.
The bills mandate the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), in coordination with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), to ensure the proper and adequate information dissemination of the contents and benefits of the Act to the public, especially to its intended beneficiaries.
The proposed measures mandate the NTC the task of formulating the necessary rules and regulations to implement the provisions of the proposed Act.
