LDI operators are seeking support of the new government to avoid penalty and support 
for the establishment of ICH through policy decision of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
LDI operators and PTCL in particular will convince the government to back them in order to attract investment mainly the transaction of $800 million on the account of pending privatization amount and different expansion projects.
Though it seems that the formation of International Clearing House (ICH) again will be difficult for the new government as CCP had nullified it subsequent orders of Supreme Judiciary, and the government as well will not be interested to form a system that hurt overseas Pakistanis. But the penalty might be waived or to be deferred for the long time period with the involvement of policy-makers.
Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) issued its verdict for nullifying the arrangement of ICH arrangement on April 30th which means the period of half months has been over with a month left to deposit penalty amount, otherwise, an additional Rs 100,000/day penalty will apply on each of the LDI operators after the deadline expires.
Besides, LDI operators have the option to appeal before a Tribunal comprising a retired Supreme Court and High Court Judge with two other various representatives also comprising the bench. However industry players suggest that the Tribunal option is not in effect and that an appeal of the penalty imposed and nullifying of the ICH agreement but going into Tribunal will linger on the matter as it has been the case recently with Fertilizers (FFC, Engro) and, in the past, with Cement manufacturers.
So, though it will be a ‘wait and see’ game in the coming days to know the legal medium the LDI operators use to appeal against the decision and what further can be speculated next in the ICH saga, what is most pertinent is to note that the ICH level incremental rates will continue to be charged despite CCP order and penalty.
With the added support of MoITT and PTA, both of whom had given the initial orders of the implementation of the ICH to LDI operators (they also collect higher Access Promotion Charge from higher call rates), this can be viewed as significantly positive.
Another possible argument in favor of the LDI operators is that int’l incoming and outgoing calls in Pakistan have been historically relatively lower vis-à-vis other countries, with several countries perators even charging incoming calls which has discontinued long back.
It is dissapointing to note here that new ICH call rates is still prevalant in the industry as the caretaker government failed to implement the orders of CCP backed by Supreme Court of Pakistan, which could be deemed as contempt of court.
LDI operators are still charging an average USc 8.8/min from an average USc 2.04/min average Jan-September 12.
The traffic of and outgoing and incoming calls dropped significantly by 228 percent to 592 million monthly minutes in February 2013 from 1,946 million in September 2012.
