KRS § 65.7635 Duty of commercial mobile radio service providers to act as collection agents for postpaid service charges for fund -- Procedure for collection of service charges before and after January 1, 2017.

65.7635 Duty of commercial mobile radio service providers to act as collection agents for postpaid service charges for fund -- Procedure for collection of service charges before and after January 1, 2017. (1) Each CMRS provider shall act as a collection agent of the CMRS postpaid service charge for the CMRS fund. From its customers, the provider shall, as part of the provider's billing process, collect the CMRS postpaid service charges levied upon CMRS connections under KRS 65.7629(3) from each CMRS connection to whom the billing provider provides CMRS. Each billing provider shall list the CMRS postpaid service charge as a separate entry on each bill which includes a CMRS postpaid service charge. If a CMRS provider receives a partial payment for a monthly bill from a CMRS customer, the provider shall first apply the payment against the amount the CMRS customer owes the CMRS provider. For CMRS customers who purchase CMRS services on a prepaid basis, the CMRS service charge shall be determined according to one (1) of the following methodologies as elected by the CMRS provider, until January 1, 2017, at which time the CMRS prepaid service charge imposed under KRS 65.7634 and collected under KRS 142.100 to 142.135 shall take effect and paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection shall no longer be in force: (a) The CMRS provider shall collect, on a monthly basis, the CMRS service charge specified in KRS 65.7629(3) from each active customer whose account balance is equal to or greater than the amount of service charge; or (b) The CMRS provider shall divide its total earned prepaid wireless telephone revenue received with respect to its prepaid customers in the Commonwealth within the monthly 911 emergency service reporting period by fifty dollars ($50), multiply the quotient by the service charge amount, and pay the resulting amount to the board. (2) A CMRS provider has no obligation to take any legal action to enforce the collection of the CMRS postpaid service charges for which any CMRS customer is billed. Collection actions to enforce the collection of the CMRS postpaid service charge against any CMRS customer may, however, be initiated by the state, on behalf of the board, in the Circuit Court of the county where the bill for CMRS service is regularly delivered, and the reasonable costs and attorneys' fees which are incurred in connection with any such collection action may be awarded by the court to the prevailing party in the action. (3) State and local taxes shall not apply to a separately stated CMRS postpaid service charge. (4) To reimburse itself for the cost of collecting and remitting the CMRS postpaid service charge, each CMRS provider may deduct and retain from the CMRS postpaid service charges it collects during each calendar month an amount not to exceed one and one-half percent (1.5%) of the gross aggregate amount of CMRS postpaid service charges it collected that month. (5) All CMRS postpaid service charges imposed under KRS 65.7621 to 65.7643 collected by each CMRS provider, less the administrative fee described in subsection (4) of this section, are due and payable to the board monthly and shall be remitted on or before thirty (30) days after the end of the calendar month. Collection actions may be initiated by the state, on behalf of the board, in the Franklin Circuit Court or any other court of competent jurisdiction, and the reasonable costs and attorneys' fees which are incurred in connection with any such collection action may be awarded by the court to the prevailing party in the action. Effective: July 15, 2016 History: Amended 2016 Ky. Acts ch. 111, sec. 12, effective July 15, 2016. -- Amended 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 219, sec. 7, effective July 12, 2006. -- Created 1998 Ky. Acts ch. 535, sec. 8, effective July 15, 1998. Legislative Research Commission Note (7/12/2006). Although 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 219, sec. 7, subsec. (5), contains a reference to "subsection (3) of this section," that reference has been codified as "subsection (4) of this section" because subsection (2), which was struck in the introduced version of the bill, was restored in the House Committee Substitute, but the necessary adjustment to this internal reference was not made. This manifest typographical or clerical error has been corrected in codification under KRS 7.136(1)(h).