Talking on Phone does not Mean Your House is Burning

Tamta Beliashvili, http://humanrightshousetbilisi.wordpress.com 

On April 11th, NGO Article 42 of Constitution addressed President Saakashvili with the request to abolish #489 resolution passed by government on December 27th of 2011. This resolution of government determined the price, tariff and way of payment of service 112 – legal entity of public law of MIA.

On the basis of #489 resolution, starting from January of 2012, deduction of 0.20 GEL started from the deposit of cell-phone subscribers. However, people who were deducted this money, never applied 112 service. Moreover, deduction took place when the legal entity of public law of MIA “112” virtually did not even exist.

Article 42 of Constitution considers that the regulation established by the disputable normative act contradicts the constitutional principles, particularly basic rights of equality which are acknowledged by articles 14 and 38 of Constitution of Georgia, also additional protocol 12 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The disputable provision of resolution of Georgian government puts citizens of Georgia in unequal situation as obligation of paying for service of 112 will be imposed only on those people who owe cell-phones and who spend more than 5 GEL on telecommunication during the month, also the owners of telephone numbers who have turned their telephone on at least once during a month or applied costly service and etc…

“Constitution does not require universal and total equalization. It just requires that differentiation between two groups of people is adequate to the real differences existing between them and that significantly different people are not treated unequally. Thus, the criteria of differentiation of two groups such as using cell-phone and the amount of money spent during month is unreasonable. Using cell-phone does not mean that the owner needs help of 112 service more than the person who does not have a cell-phone or economically spend money,” – reads the statement of Article 42 of Constitution.

According to the same statement, the discrimination and unequal treatment is clearer when we examine the situation of those people who owe several cell-phone numbers: “Person who owes three cell-phone numbers, pays three times more than one who owes one number whether or not the money spent on all three numbers exceeds money spent by one number and this does not mean that this person will have a privilege while using 112 service or will be protected more.”

Thus, Article 42 of Constitution asks President to abolished #489 resolution of government adopted on December 27th of 2011 within his mandate.
On March 15th Article 42 of Constitution addressed Tbilisi City Court Board of Administrative Proceedings and held a press conference regarding the complaint.

The executive director of Article 42 of Constitution Nazi Janezashvili talked about violation of rights by resolution #489. According to her, “the state treats two different groups of society different that violates principle of constitutional equality. This is an eminent example of discrimination and differentiation of citizens from the side of state. Government should treat people equally in regards with any kind of fee.”

According to the lawyer of Article 42 of Constitution Nikoloz Legashvili, except for principle of equality, property right is also violated in this case: “If we are not using the service, state should not establish fee for it. The amount of money does not matter in this case. This resolution violates right of service and property. According to law, the decree of government should be issued on the basis of Constitution and other normative acts. Besides, principle of proportionality is being violated. According to European Convention on Human Rights, public and private interests should not come in contradiction when making decision.”

Human Rights Center talked to experts of economics Gia Khukhashvili and Davit Narmania regarding the recent resolution.

Gia Khukhashvili called the telephone fee anti-constitutional: “Talking on telephone does not mean that my house is burning. Considering the logics and fairness, setting this fee and particularly, attaching it to cell-phone is absolutely unjustified. Lately, this tendency is observed everywhere. Let us take the fact of attaching municipal fee of cleaning to fee of electricity. Government is applying unimaginable illegal manipulations.”

According to executive director of Economic and Social Research Institute, Davit Narmania, when the citizen or a company is not given service and the state cuts money without getting permission, this is stealing money and is a punishable act in any normal country.

Davit Narmania broadened the issue of payment and talked when it can be deemed justified. According to him, the tariff set proportionately in regards with the spent money would have caused less negative reaction, if only the user of 112 service was charged. In this case this fee would have been justified. “In the best scenario, the government should have set this fee at all since these kinds of public services are free everywhere and other taxes should ensure their existence,” – Davit Narmania stated with Human Rights Center.

The member of parliamentary majority Kakha Okriashvili noted with http://www.commersant.ge/ that the set fee will not damage people: “The people who are receiving social assistance through the program of helpless citizens will not be charged. People who spend less than 5 GEL for the cell-phone service are also freed from the fee. For all the rest, I think paying 20 tetra a month should not be a problem. This money ensures the comprehensive work of special services. We should consider that special services work for free. Besides, last year, the tariffs of cell-phone companies drastically decreased. Thus, fixing 20 tetra fee will not create problems for people.”

The fact is that public attitude towards this news is negative and for majority of citizens fixing this fee is unacceptable. According to lawyers and experts, this resolution is illegal and should be abolished.

Photo of www.article42.ge: Executive Director of Article 42 of Constitution Nazi Janezashvili near the President’s Chancellery, April 11th of 2012