Belgrade, August 16 - The Serbian government discussed on Thursday the situation created by the increase of phone call charges by the Telecom Serbia and it brought a decision to oblige the managing board of the Telecom Serbia to promptly adjust the charges and the tariff system.

The Serbian government, at the suggestion by the Transport and Telecommunications Minister Marija Raseta- Vukosavljevic demanded from the Telecom Serbia managing board immediately to: -increase the number of free pulses included in the subscription fee from the present 40 pulses to 150; in that way, every subscriber who pays YUD48 for their subscription will get the right to 5 hours of phoning free of charge at high rate, or to 10 hours at low rate -work out the best solution for a more favourable use of Internet services

The Serbian government considered the situation in which citizens had found themselves when they received very high phone bills in the past few days. The Serbian government set up a four-member committee to control the observance of the tariff system and the telecommunications services price list, including the system of pulse-counting, the application of tariff classes to pulses counted and the adherence to the price list. The committee has been authorized to request all the necessary data from the Telecom Serbia.

Immediately after the government meeting, the Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic held a meeting with the Transport and Telecommunications Minister Marija Raseta-Vukosavljevic, the Telecom Serbia board director Dragor Hiber and the Telecom Serbia managing director Drasko Petrovic. It was agreed that the Telecom Serbia undertake to, in the shortest term possible and in collaboration with the Serbian government and the Internet service providers, find an optimal solution to improve access to Internet services for citizens. The Telecom Serbia is to continue providing free Internet access to academic institutions. In this way, students, professors and scientists will enjoy the privilege of free or fairly favourably priced Internet services.