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Telephone Law - 1967 - Official Gazette No. 75, published 1967/03/11 (1345/12/20 A.P.)

POSTAL LAW

16 Dalwa 1352

[47 Articles]

TELEPHONE LAW

20 Hoot 1345

[45 Article]
TELEPHONE LAW

20 HOOT 1346

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
Chapter 1 Definition 10-30
Chapter 2 General Provisions 10-31
Chapter 3 Inviolability of Telephone
Communications 10-32
Chapter 4 Charges and Exemptions 10-32
Chapter 5 Out-of Area Telephone Calls 10-33
Chapter 6 Cancellation of Calls and Refunding
Of Charges 10-33
Chapter 7 Rights and Obligations 10-34
Chapter 8 Penal Provisions 10-34
Chapter 9 Final Provisions 10-35

CHAPTER ONE: DEFINITIONS

ARTICLE 1: In this law, the following terms shall have the stated meanings:

1. Telephone Communications: the act of sending messages of state of affairs from one place to another place through a specified telephone station.
   
2. Telephone Set: the instrument by which the communicator’s voice reaches the party-being-communicated to (i.e. addresses).
   
3. Switchboard: the central, technical system that connects interregional telephones with one another or with the telephones of outside areas.
   
4. Service Calls: communications performed between two communication offices only for official purposes.
   
5. International Calls: communication made between one of the telephone stations in Afghanistan and foreign telephone stations or between a telephone station inside the country and a telephone station outside Afghanistan.
   
6. Within-Area-Calls: calls made between two telephone stations of a system within the same area (or region) automatically or non-automatically.
   
7. Outside-Area-Calls: calls made between the Capital and the provinces, or between districts in a province, each one belonging to a separate system and switchboard.
   
8. Telephone Customer (Subscriber): a real or legal person who has in his disposal a telephone set for communication in accordance with the provisions of this law.
9. Real Customer (Original Subscriber): the real or legal person based on whose request the telephone has been registered in his name in the telephone directory.
   
10. Subsidiary Subscriber: the real or legal person who, pursuant to administrative and technical regulations and with the consent of the Communications Office and written agreement of the Original Subscriber, utilities his line jointly in return for payment of full and separate charges therefore.
    
11. Installation Charge: the sum of money paid for the services rendered to extend the line, installation, opening and conducting communications by the subscribers to the Communications Office vis-à-vis the lawful receipts.
    
12. Guarantee: the sum of money entrusted as guarantee for the telephone set to the Communications Office.
    
13. Telephone Rent: the determined sum of money paid by the customers for making use of the telephone set owned by the Ministry of Communications designated times subject to the provisions of this law.
    
14. Telephone Charge: the determined sum of money paid at designed periods to the Communications Office according to the provisions of this law, for utilizing the telephone line.
    

CHAPTER TWO: GENERAL PROVISIONS

ARTICLE 2: The right to import, sell, transfer, use and install telephone communication system and related equipment shall be exercised exclusively by the Ministry of Communications.

Importation, installation, and utilization of communication instruments and stations relating to defense shall be excluded from this rule.

ARTICLE 3: Telephone subscribers who acquire from the Ministry of Communications the right to make use of telephones in accordance with the provisions of this law shall not be entitled to dispense with, transfer or rent the right to make use of the telephone to other real or legal persons.

ARTICLE 4: All telephone subscribers, with the exception of a government agencies, shall be bound to pay a guarantee into the account of the Ministry of Communications in accordance with the regulations thereof.

ARTICLE 5: Rent of telephone sets to subscribers shall be fulfilled in accordance with the rules provided by special regulations. Persons, real or legal, who have purchased telephone sets prior to the enforcement of this law, their telephones shall be reprised by the Ministry of Communications and purchased threat.

ARTICLE 6: Telephone subscribers shall not extend a line or install, repair, or transfer a telephone or other related acts by persons not authorized by the Communications Office, but instead they shall be bound to notify and refer to the respective Communications Offices in such instances in writing.

ARTICLE 7: Telephone transferred from one place to another and reinstalled on the subscriber’s request, economic and technical conditions permitting, shall be subject to new installation charges therefore.

ARTICLE 8: Telephone agreements concluded between Afghanistan and other States shall preserve the laws, national interest and dignity of the country.

CHAPTER THREE: INVIOLABILITY OF TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS

ARTICLE 9: Freedom and secrecy of telephone communications are inviolable as provided in Article 30 of the Constitution of Afghanistan.”

ARTICLE 10: Permission of the Court is required prior to the search of telephone communications by members of the Attorney-General’s Office and other judicial offices in urgent cases as provided by Article 30 of the Constitution.

ARTICLE 11: Persons mentioned in Article 10 may under exceptionally urgent circumstances, where the lapse of time creates a danger of losing results or the truth, search telephone the lapse of time creates a danger of losing results or he truth, search telephone communications without the prior permission of the Court. However, such officials shall be bound to obtain the decision of the concerned court within three days after the search.

ARTICLE 12: Under the following circumstances, too, telephone communications can be searched without prior permission of the court:

1. Presence of circumstances endangering the internal or international security of the State.
   
2. Attendance of conditions jeopardizing the national economic life and State affairs.
   
3. Prevalence of conditions disturbing life, security, and physical integrity of persons.
   

ARTICLE 13: To search telephone communications, the reason for search, names and occupations of persons communicating, shall be clear.

Search of telephone communications shall be made within the rules set by administrative regulations of the telephone office and in the presence of the head of the Communications Department and shall be signed by him.

CHAPTER FOUR: CHARGES AND EXEMPTIONS

ARTICLE 14: The charges on telephone sets in Afghanistan are collected on a monthly basis subject to special regulations, and charges for out-side area (or interregional) communications in Afghanistan shall be determined in tariffs proposed by the Ministry of Communications when necessary, approved by the Supreme Council of Ministers, and applied thereafter.

ARTICLE 15: The determination of limits for international communication charges shall be based on tariffs provided in agreements concluded between the State of Afghanistan and interested foreign states and international regulations approved by the Council of Ministers when necessary.

ARTICLE 16: A twenty-percent exemption shall be allowed with regard to the following telephone charges:

1. On telephone pertaining to hospitals in Afghanistan.
   
2. On telephone relating to welfare institutions such as the orphanage, the Red Crescent Society, and the like.

ARTICLE 17: Telephone subscribers shall pay their telephone charges every three months.

ARTICLE 18: Telephone communications for crime reports processed by offices of the Police and Public Prosecutor (S’aran-wali) shall not be subject to charge.

ARTICLE 19: Subscribers to subsidiary (or ancillary) lines must pay the same charges as the original telephone subscribers.

ARTICLE 20: Express incurred in installing switchboards and extending telephone line shall be collected according to special regulations therefore.

ARTICLE 21: Switchboards imported by domestic or foreign institutions and public enterprises with prior permission of the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Defense for the sole purpose of XXXX communications, installed and utilized without connection with the central system at their own expenses, shall be exempted from the payment of charges. However, Government, Monopoly charge shall be collected therefore.

CHAPTER FIVE: OUT-OF-AREA TELEPHONE CALLS

ARTICLE 22: Out-of-area calls are subject to charge according to special tariffs. The minimum time limit for charging telephone conversations shall be three minutes, even if the actual time length is less than three minutes.

ARTICLE 23: Should the telephone conversation in out-of-area calls exceed three minutes, each additional minute shall be subject to one-third of the three-minute conversation charge. Interruptions caused by technical deficiencies of station lines during the communication process shall not be considered in the conversation period.

ARTICLE 24: Tickets issued for payable out-of-area calls are valid for 48 hours. Should the ticket-owner or the addresses fail to appear for conversation within 48 hours, the ticket shall be void and null.

ARTICLE 25: When the distance between the telephones station and the residence of the addresses exceeds three kilometers, the ticket for payable calls shall not be used.

ARTICLE 26: Should the addresses lack a telephone, and be summoned for conversation by the employees for the Communications Office, in addition to the ticket charge, a commission shall be collected according to special regulations.

CHAPTER SIX: CANCELLATION OF CALLS
AND REFUNDING OF CHARGES

ARTICLE 27: In out-of-area calls, when the ticket number has been released to the addressed station’s office, but the caller requests its cancellation, the ticket charge shall be reimbursed after a ten-percent reduction for administrative expenses.

ARTICLE 28: If the caller requests the cancellation of his ticket prior to the release of the call number to the addressee-station’s office, the ticket charge shall be refunded after reduction of three Afghanis for administrative expenses.

ARTICLE 29: Should the addressee’s address prove wrong for the second time as well, on request of the caller, the ticket charge shall be refunded with a 20-percent reduction for administrative expenses.

ARTICLE 30: Officials and employees of telephone stations must make efforts to get XXXX addressee on the line. If the addressee, despite two referrals to the XXXX

station, does not attend to answer the cal, on the caller’s demand, the call shall be cancelled and after ten-percent reduction for administrative expenses, his money shall be reimbursed.

ARTICLE 31: If due to technical difficulties in the communications system the call has not been made for one or two days, on the initiator’s demand, the call shall be cancelled and his money, after collecting three Afghanis, shall be returned.

CHAPTER SEVEN: RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS

ARTICLE 32: A subscriber to a telephone line who has waived his rights and cleared his accounts shall be deemed as one having no claim on the said line.

ARTICLE 33: Whenever the original subscriber, of his own will, waives his telephone rights or loses his said rights under the provisions of this law, the subsidiary joint line shall be ceased ipso facto, unless the subsidiary subscriber has used the said line for at least two years, in which case the latter shall be recognized as the original subscriber.

CHAPTER EIGHT: PENAL PROVISIONS

ARTICLE 34: Whoever, in violation of Article 7 of this law, engages in importing telephone sets of other instruments and equipment, shall be subject in addition to confiscation of the said articles to a fine from three to ten thousand Afghanis.

ARTICLE 35: Whoever in violation of Article 3 of this law sells his telephone rights or transfers them to another or rents them, shall be subject to a fine extending from one to three thousand Afghanis as well as his telephone line shall be cut and he shall be deprived of his telephone rights and his request for a new subscription shall not be accepted for one year.

ARTICLE 36: Whoever in violation of Article 6 of this law, extends, installs, repairs or transfers a telephone line by unauthorized persons shall be subject to a fine of up to one thousand Afghanis.

ARTICLE 37: Should a telephone subscriber fail to pay his telephone charges until the end of the fourth month in accordance with article 17, the three months charge plus a ten-percent fine shall be paid at the beginning of the fifth month. And if the six months dues are not paid until the end of the seventh month, his telephone line shall be cut and the dues shall be collected with the said fine.

ARTICLE 38: Should the telephone operators and workers place an out-of-area call without collecting the charge, they shall be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the law.

ARTICLE 39: Any telephone subscriber who misuses his telephone by disturbing others, if the disturbance be proven by the control machine, the following penalties shall be applied against him.

1. At the first instance, the owner of the telephone shall be warned by the Ministry of Communications.
   
2. On repeating the same deed, the telephone shall be suspended form communications for three months.
   

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On the third occasion, the telephone line shall be cut and a request for renewal of the subscription shall not be accepted for the year. If the disturbance be committed by the use of the telephones pertaining to government enterprises and offices, the matter shall be notified in writing to the authorized chief for purposes of investigation.

ARTICLE 40: Persons who deliberately destroy telephone instruments thereby delaying communications or steal telephone equipment and instruments shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the Penal Law for Crimes of Civil Servants and Crimes Against Public Welfare and Security.*

CHAPTER NINE: FINAL PROVISIONS

ARTICLE 41: The provisions of this law shall in no way affect the international agreements signed by Afghanistan.

ARTICLE 42: Provisions of laws, regulations and decrees repugnant to the provisions of this law shall be annulled with the enactment of this law.

ARTICLE 43: The Ministry of Communications shall have the authority to adopt regulations and instructions necessary for the implementation of this law.

ARTICLE 44: Ministries of Communications and Justice shall execute the provisions of this law.

ARTICLE 46: This law shall come into force after its publication in the Official Gazette.

* Law of 26 Qaus 1341.

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