MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. has justified the collection of a P50 fee for late payments, as it faces the possibility of a legislative investigation mounted by progressive lawmakers.
Globe vice president and head of consumer mobile business Darius Delgado said in a statement the late payment fine would affect just five percent of its subscriber base.
Delgado said the P50 fee for late settlements would only be charged on accounts in broadband postpaid, mobile postpaid and platinum.
Based on its financial report for the first semester, Globe handles a customer base of 2.55 million for mobile postpaid and 2.16 million for broadband postpaid.
This means that nearly five million subscribers could be charged by Globe with a late payment fine.
According to Delgado, Globe has deferred imposing the fee for the longest time.
He pointed out that it is a standard practice across industries to charge penalties on late settlements.
“With today’s business environment when other sectors and even the government are charging a late payment fee, an example is the Land Transportation Office, we believe that the telco sector may follow suit,” Delgado said.
Delgado urged Globe customers to pay their bills ahead of time to ensure that their telco subscriptions are uninterrupted.
“Our customers don’t have to worry about the late payment fee if they pay on time, (and) this fee is not meant to burden them, but to encourage them to make prompt payments for uninterrupted connectivity services,” he said.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro wants to launch a legislative probe against Globe for slapping a late payment fee on its customers.
Citing a recent survey conducted by Social Weather Station, Castro said almost half of Filipinos rated themselves as poor.
Castro reminded telco operators that connectivity has become a necessity these days.
The lawmaker lamented that telcos like Globe are sanctioning their subscribers for late payments when consumers receive nothing in return for service outages.
Castro is heading the congressional push to mandate telcos to refund their customers for service disruptions.
Globe is set start charging the P50 fine for late payments on Dec. 1.