Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter


Issue 48-49     Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law     September 15, 1998 

Decree on Payment for Use of Radio Frequencies

    Text of decree of the government of the Russian Federation of 6th August, 1998, No 895, Moscow:  “On Approval of the Statute on Payment for the Use of the Radio Frequency Spectrum in the Russian Federation,” as published by the Russian newspaper ‘Rossiyskaya Gazeta’:
    The government of the Russian Federation hereby decrees:
    The appended Statute on Payment for the Use of the Radio Frequency Spectrum in the Russian Federation shall be approved.
    [Signed]  Chairman of the government of the Russian Federation S. Kiriyenko
    Statute on Payment for the Use of the Radio Frequency Spectrum in the Russian Federation
    1.  The present statute establishes the basic principles and general conditions for payment for the use of the radio frequency spectrum, frequency appropriation, and the radio frequency channel (hereinafter referred to as the radio frequency spectrum) for all organizations, irrespective of their form of ownership, and individual entrepreneurs who use radioelectronic equipment on the territory of the Russian Federation for commercial purposes in order to render the communications services envisioned by the decree of the government of the Russian Federation of 2nd June, 1998, No 552, “On Introducing Payment for the Use of the Radio Frequency Spectrum.”
    2.  The radio frequency spectrum shall be exclusively a state resource.  Payment for the use of the radio frequency spectrum shall be established separately for each permit for the use of the radio frequency spectrum.  The transfer of the use of the radio frequency spectrum to organizations, irrespective of their form of ownership, or to individual entrepreneurs for possession or indefinite continuous use shall be prohibited.
    3.  The right of an organization, irrespective of its form of ownership, or an individual entrepreneur to use the radio frequency spectrum may not be transferred to other individuals or legal entities unless otherwise stipulated by normative legal acts of the Russian Federation.
    4.  The amount of the payment for use of the radio frequency spectrum shall be established annually.
    5.  Organizations, irrespective of their form of ownership, and individual entrepreneurs using radio frequency spectrums, whose permits for their use have not been obtained on a competitive basis, must before 1st September, 1998 make the annual payment set in the amount of twice the rate for services for administration of the use of the radio frequency spectrum developed by the service for government oversight over communications in the Russian Federation and approved by the federal service of Russia for regulation of natural monopolies in the area of communications in compliance with the decree of the government of the Russian Federation of 7th March 1997, No 265, “On Regulation of Rates for Communications Services and Approval of the Basic Provisions for State Regulation of Rates for Services of Generally Accessible Electronic Communications on the Federal and Regional Levels.”
    Payment for the use of the radio frequency spectrum shall be made to agencies of the service for state oversight of communications in the Russian Federation annually or quarterly, in equal portions no later than the fifth day of the first month of the quarter.
    Said payment shall be distributed as follows:
    Fifty per cent shall be forwarded as reimbursement for costs of the state service for oversight over communications in the Russian Federation for administration of the use of the radio frequency spectrum;
    Fifty per cent shall be forwarded to the state budget.
    Agencies of the state service for oversight over communications in the Russian Federation shall make a point of transferring the corresponding amounts to the federal budget no later than three days after they are received.
    6.  Violation of the procedure envisioned by the present statute for making payments for the use of the radio frequency spectrum shall be grounds for suspension of the licence to grant communications services involving the use of the radio frequency spectrum.

‘Rossiyskaya Gazeta,’ Moscow, August 18, 1998