§ 8-1-17-20 — Rates and charges; revenues and receipts not needed; REA borrowers; rates sufficient to repay financial assistance

Indiana § 8-1-17-20

• Jurisdiction: Indiana
• Art. 1: UTILITIES GENERALLY
• Ch. 17: Telephones─Rural Telephone Cooperative Act

Text

(a) A local cooperative corporation shall be
required to furnish reasonably adequate communications services and
facilities. The charge made by any local cooperative corporation for
any service rendered or to be rendered, either directly or in connection
with the service, shall be nondiscriminatory, reasonable, and just, and
every discriminatory, unjust, or unreasonable charge for
communications service is prohibited and declared unlawful.
Reasonable and just charges for communications service within the
meaning of this section are those charges that produce sufficient
revenue to pay all legal and other necessary expense incident to the
operation of the local cooperative corporation's system, including
maintenance costs, operating charges, upkeep, repairs, interest charges
on bonds or other obligations, to provide a sinking fund for the
liquidation of bonds or other evidences of indebtedness, to provide
adequate funds to be used as working capital, as well as funds for
making extensions and replacements, and also for the payment of any
taxes that may be assessed against the cooperative corporation or its
property. Charges described in this section must produce an income
sufficient to maintain the local cooperative corporation's property in
sound physical and financial condition to render adequate and efficient
service. Any rate too low to meet the foregoing requirements is
unlawful. Revenues and receipts not needed for the purposes described
in this section, or not needed in reserves for those purposes, shall be
returned to the patrons on a pro rata basis according to the amounts
paid by them for communications service. Amounts returned under this
section shall be either in cash or in abatement of current charges for
communications service, as the board may decide.
(b) As used in subsection (d), "financial assistance" means:
(1) a loan or loan guarantee; or
(2) a lien accommodation provided to secure a loan made by
another lender;
including loans made by the Rural Electrification Administration of the
United States Department of Agriculture (REA) or by the Rural
Telephone Bank.
(c) As used in subsections (d) and (e), "REA borrower" means a
corporation created under this chapter that is the recipient of financial
assistance.
(d) In determining rates under this section, an REA borrower must
charge rates sufficient to enable the REA borrower to:
(1) satisfy its reasonable expenses and obligations; and
(2) repay the full amount of any financial assistance and the
interest thereon.
(e) So long as there remains any unpaid portion of any financial
assistance associated with the property of an REA borrower, the rates
of the REA borrower shall be set at a level sufficient to repay the
financial assistance, regardless of the full or partial retirement of the
property or any other change in the status of the property.
Formerly: Acts 1951, c.193, s.20. As amended by P.L.74-1991,
SEC.3; P.L.97-1993, SEC.9; P.L.27-2006, SEC.48; P.L.81-2020,
SEC.12.