Bangladesh authorities have hung up on the country’s first mobile-phone operator Citycell for its failure to pay Tk 4.77 billion government dues.
State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim announced the closure at a press conference at the office of telecoms regulators BTRC Thursday evening.
“Citycell’s spectrum has been suspended,” she told reporters at the hurriedly called conference.
A team of BTRC officials accompanied by RAB and police was working at the Citycell office in Mohakhali when the press conference was under way just after 6pm.
Tarana called the conference earlier in the day after BTRC Director (Enforcement) Yakub Ali Bhuiyan was seen entering the Citycell Headquarters Pacific Centre around 4:45pm.
A few police and RAB officers accompanied him, while others stood guard outside.
Citycell, owned by BNP leader and former foreign minister M Morshed Khan, will not be able to pay the dues for now as it failed to meet several deadlines, Tarana thinks.
“Citycell will not be able to pay the dues for now as it failed to meet several deadlines,” Tarana said adding “They couldn’t take the opportunity. They owe banks tens of millions of taka. They did not pay the media for advertisement,” she said.
“We want to come out of such practices,” she added.
The number of Citycell service users has dropped to 150,000 and they are not going to get any compensation which became clear from BTRC Chirman Shahjahan Mahmood’s comments.
“The company does not exist, how they demand and get compensation?” he asked in replying to queries at the press conference.
He said the Citycell users had been given time twice to switch to other operators.
BTRC announced the closure in July, saying Citycell owed the government Tk 4.77 billion. It served a notice on the operator the next month.
Then Citycell got two more months on Aug 29 from the Supreme Court to continue its operations, saying it will be able to continue beyond that time if it paid up the dues.
Barrister Reza-e-Rakib, who represented the BTRC, had said after the order that the Appellate
Division had disposed of their plea after making some corrections to a previous High Court order and given some directives.
“Two-thirds of the dues will have to be repaid within a month and one-third within the next month.”
Also, every day Tk 1.8 million was being added to the total amount of dues, he said.
The court ordered Citycell to clear the dues of each new day immediately and said that BTRC can take action if the payments are not made, Rakib said.
Tarana also told the press conference that the decision to close Citycell was taken on BTRC’s legal authority following the Appellate Division verdict.
She said BTRC did not pay two-thirds of the dues within four weeks following the court order.
“They have cleared only Tk 1.3 billion today. They were supposed to pay Tk 3.18 billion in the first installment,” she said.
Citycell officials had earlier said they were discussing new investments and would continue operations by paying the dues once the money comes.
“They’ve said 11 times that ‘investment is coming’, but they failed. They cannot be trusted. They failed to show anything tangible (towards new investment),” Tarana said.
She added that legal actions would be taken later to collect the dues.
Asked whether Citycell will get its spectrum back if it repays, the minister said, “I don’t see any scope for Citycell to return the money. They have initially failed to repay.”
In reply to another query on whether Citycell’s spectrum will be cancelled, she said, “It’s a matter of terming. The decision to cancel spectrum may be taken.”
BTRC lawyer Rakib said, “BTRC can cancel licence anytime after suspending spectrum. It’s just a policy matter.”
Asked whether Citycell could get a verdict in its favour if it moves the court, the minister said, “I think there is no scope of going to the court. It cannot be fixed. I think it’s final.”
She also said the government did not have any plan to bring in any other new operator now after suspending Citycell’s spectrum.
Besides Citycell, Bangladesh has five telcos – Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel and state-owned Teletalk. Robi and Airtel are in merger talks.
When a reporter asked BTRC chief Mahmood whether it would take any step to ensure that the company compensates its employees, he replied “The employees did not knock BTRC in time. If they came in time, we could have done something.”
The subscriber base of Citycell, the only CDMA operator of the country, shrunk below 200,000 months ago when the total number of registered mobile phone SIM cards was over 130 million.
Its parent company Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited got licence for telecom services in 1989.
BNP leader Morshed Khan’s Pacific Motors has 37.95 percent stakes in Citycell.
He encashed a huge profit by selling its stake to Singapore-based SingTel Asia Pacific Investments Pte Limited that holds a majority share of 45 percent now.
Far East Telecom Limited owns a 17.51 percent stake.
Source: Bd news24
