Without prejudice to the financial contribution that may be imposed on operators for the financing of the universal service, in accordance with the provisions of Article 36 and Title III of the LGT, communications operators who obtain from the supply of networks or the provision of electronic communications services a gross annual operating income of more than EUR 1 million shall be obliged to meet the general operator fee, the amount of which shall not exceed 1 per thousand of their gross operating income, as referred to in the fourth paragraph of Annex I. The costs to be borne are those incurred, including management, control and enforcement costs, by the national regulatory authorities referred to in Article 98 of the LGT in applying the legal regime established in the LGT.
For the purposes of the foregoing paragraph, gross revenue means the aggregate of income earned by the operator arising from the operation of the network operation and the provision of electronic communications services falling within the scope of the LGT. For this purpose, services provided by an operator whose amount it collects from users for the purpose of remunerating the services of operators operating networks or providing electronic communications services shall not be considered as gross revenue.
The fee will accrue on December 31 of each year. However, if, for reasons attributable to the operator, the operator loses the entitlement to act as such on the date prior to December 31, the fee shall accrue on the date on which this circumstance occurs.
For the purposes of the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the Law on General State Budgets will establish annually the percentage to be applied on the gross operating income obtained by the operator, with the limit determined in this section for the fixing of the amount of the fee, taking into account the relationship between the income from the collection of the fee and the expenses caused by the operation of the Commission of the Telecommunications Marking.
The difference between the revenues budgeted for this concept and those actually obtained will be taken into account in order to reduce or increase the percentage to be fixed in the Law on General Budgets of the State of the following year. The objective will be to achieve a balance between the income from the fee and the expenses derived from the aforementioned activity carried out by the Telecommunications Market Commission.