Aside from being impractical, the proposed tax and fixed rate on text messaging lacks legal planning, consultation, and research, Express Telecommunications Co. (Extelcom) said Tuesday.

In a position paper filed before the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the country's first mobile service provider opposed the proposal of the Congressional Oversight Committee for being "constitutionally infirm."

“Extelcom views that this Honorable Commission should reject the Committee’s proposal on imposing the P0.05 regulatory fee for being constitutionally infirm. Also, that the said proposal is ultimately impractical and ineffectual since it lacks further planning, consultation and research,” Extelcom said.

The Congressional Oversight Committee, led by Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, proposed a P0.05 tax and P0.50 fixed fee on short message service (SMS) or text. The committee also asked the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) to order the NTC to draft necessary regulations after public consultations.

But even if the NTC can promulgate a regulatory rule, Extelcom said the Supreme Court had ruled in the past that such fees must only be sufficient to cover expenses of either issuing the license or funding for surveillance and inspection needed to enforce the regulatory measure.

“The proceeds that will be accumulated from the regulatory fee would be exorbitant; thus, there must be an articulation of the scope and limitations as to how the tax measure will be applied not by an executive agency but by the legislative body, whose power is vested upon it by our Constitution,” Extelcom said.

Earlier, Globe Telecom Inc. scored Suarez' SMS-related proposals, saying that such cannot impose any legal obligation on telecommunications firms.

According to Globe chief legal counsel and senior adviser Rodolfo Salalima, the committee cannot direct the CICT and the NTC to enforce its recommendations as these bodies take orders directly from the Office of the President.

"Congress cannot impose its thinking or inclination and/or enforce the same against administrative or quasi-judicial bodies like the NTC and the CICT, because these bodies take their orders for their executive functionings from the Office of the President. This is separation of power in action," he explained.