The increase in telecommunications tariffs by Mozambique's National Communications Institute violates the Telecommunications Law, according to the Competition Regulatory Authority (ARC).

The ACR says that the resolution that dictated the increase in prices charged by mobile phone companies should not just be suspended, as the government recommended and the INCM complied with, but repealed.

ARC said in a statement that the INCM's intervention not only goes against the principles defined in the Regulation on Criteria and Principles for Setting Telecommunications Tariffs, but also violates the provisions of the Telecommunications Law, by significantly increasing the tariffs for telecommunications services for consumers.

According to the regulator, imposing minimum prices on all operators directly interferes with the freedom of economic agents to set their tariffs in accordance with market conditions and the costs associated with their activity, limiting competitiveness and creativity, which can lead to inefficiency.

"Furthermore, the impositions it adopted in the Resolution should not be made in the abstract or be of general application, but only imposed on the operator with a significant market position," reads the ARC's note.

ARC concludes by making it clear that its position is the result of research carried out since the publication of the aforementioned Resolution by the INCM in February of this year, and demands to be included in the study to be carried out by the INCM on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.