THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has ordered NOW Telecom, a telecommunications and broadband provider affiliated with publicly listed NOW Corp., to pay P4.04 billion in outstanding supervision and regulation fees (SRF), including penalties.
In a disclosure on Tuesday, NOW Corp. said the NTC had a demand letter dated Sept. 9, detailing the outstanding fees owed by its affiliate and requiring payment “on or before Sept. 30, 2026.”
NOW Corp. said the NTC letter assessed NOW Telecom’s outstanding obligations at P4.043 billion, adding that it “covers various assessment periods through 2026 and references a Supreme Court Resolution dated April 21, 2026, involving NOW Telecom and the NTC.”
Explaining the delay in its affiliate’s payment of outstanding fees, the company said NOW Telecom had disputed the basis of the assessment and that on Oct. 9 had requested the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the NTC to make a year-by-year review, recomputation and reconciliation of the SRF assessments beginning 2005.
It said NOW Telecom also questioned the capital amounts applied by the NTC, particularly the treatment of additional paid-in capital and the differences between the capital balances reflected in audited financial statements and those used in the NTC’s assessment records.
“NOW Telecom has stated that its capital structure had undergone changes over the relevant assessment years and requested that the applicable financial information for each year be considered in determining the corresponding SRF obligations,” NOW Corp. said.
While the assessment was directed against NOW Telecom, a separate juridical entity, and not against NOW Corp., the company said that considering its investment in NOW Telecom, “management recognizes that material developments affecting NOW Telecom’s financial position and future cash flows may have implications for the valuation and recoverability of the Corporation’s investment.”
The NTC said in June that it would pursue the collection of around P3.77 billion in SRF liabilities, including penalties, from NOW Telecom after the Supreme Court denied with finality the company’s motion for reconsideration regarding its disqualification from a 3G frequency assignment due to unpaid SRF and spectrum user fees.
NOW Corp. shares on Tuesday closed unchanged at P0.37 each, amid a 0.73-percent decline for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.
