Senator files bill seeking removal of expiry period in prepaid load

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a bill seeking the removal of the expiration period of all denominations of prepaid load credits set by telecommunications services .

Under Senate Bill 365, or the Prepaid Load Forever Act of 2019, all Public Telecommunications Entities (PTEs) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) providers will be barred from imposing an expiry period on the validity of prepaid load credits and their forfeiture.

Also prohibited is the refusal to give a refund to any prepaid subscriber whose load credits were forfeited without any valid cause.

“Every peso spent by the consumer to purchase prepaid load credits must be usable until fully consumed,” Gatchalian said.

He said his bill covers all prepaid load credits, not just call and text credits, but also those that are loaded to devices to be used for other telecommunications services, including, but not to limited to tablets, Wi-Fi dongles, or mobile hotspots.

The bill also includes transferred or shared prepaid load credits.

SB 365 defines “prepaid load credit” as the monetary value or the consumable amount loaded through prepaid card or electronic load to a device that enables a subscriber to use telecommunications services.

Gatchalian said his bill will potentially impact 142,432,163 prepaid subscribers, or 96.6% of the total number of mobile subscribers in the country as of the first quarter of 2019.

He said they stand to lose their hard-earned prepaid load credits due to non-use before the expiration date.

Also, Gatchalian said the Joint Memorandum Circular No. 05-12-2017 of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) currently prescribes a one-year validity period for prepaid load credits of all PTEs and ICT providers with a denomination of P300 and above effective last January 5, 2018.

The senator said prepaid loads purchased for promos and bucket of services with specific period of use duly approved by the DTI and/or the NTC are not covered by the circular. —LBG, GMA News