Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) on Wednesday issued a “no objection letter” to Ncell regarding the share purchase agreement between Sunivera Capital Ventures and Neeraj Govinda Shrestha, under which Sunivera will acquire Shrestha’s 20 percent stake in Ncell.

The development paves the way for the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) to clear the deal.

In the first week of January, the telecommunications sector regulator had raised concerns, stating it was unaware about the deal. “We have given the go-ahead after we received formal correspondence from Ncell,” NTA Chairman Digambar Jha said.

The local share transfer process began after Ncell’s parent TeliaSonera in September last year said it would leave the Eurasian market and Nepal. In December, TeliaSonera announced it had agreed in principle to sell its entire stake in Ncell to Malaysia-based telecom firm Axiata.

NTA had expressed concerns based on the Article 27 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 which states in case a licensee desires to sell or transfer license to any other person, the licensee and the buyer or the transferee of the license will have to submit a joint application to the NTA stating the reason thereof along with the terms and conditions mutually agreed, for approval.

The Clause 2 of Article 27 states: “Upon the receipt of an application submitted, while making an inquiry by the authority, if it deems appropriate to sell or transfer the license to the person mentioned in the application, the authority shall grant approval for such sale or transfer within 30 days of receiving the application, and if it deems inappropriate to permit the sale or transfer, a notification with reason shall be given to the applicant.”

NTA, however, is yet to clarify its position regarding the overall Ncell deal to the Ministry of Information and Communication. Authorities are still not clear whether TeliaSonera should to pay capital gain tax for the sale of remaining 80 percent stake in an offshore deal.

Sunivera Capital Ventures owned by Bhavana Singh Shrestha has already started the process of buying 200,000 shares in Ncell at Rs100 per unit, according to documents submitted by Sunivera to the Department of Industry.

This, however, is not the actual value of the shares. The actual value will be fixed mutually by the buyer and the seller as Ncell is a private company, and the set price will be revealed to the OCR.

The Inland Revenue Department will oversee issues regarding taxation on the transfer of 20 percent local shares based on the transaction recorded by the OCR.