The Parliamentary Committee of the Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry has asked the government to crack down hard on the illegal VOIP business
It said after its 6th meeting on Sunday that no politician or bureaucrat involved with this illegal business should be spared and asked the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to come down hard on them.
“The BTRC has been asked to be particularly strict in preventing illegal call terminations. And the committee has insisted no politician or bureaucrat connected with it should be spared,” ICT junior minister Junaid Ahmed Palak told bdnews24.com after the meeting.
The BTRC has been asked to submit a detailed report about the calls handled by groups in the International Gateway (IGW) business.
“We have asked the BTRC to check out the call audit system in neighbouring countries and submit a report to us. They will do it within a week,” the parliament committee’s chairman Imran Ahmed said.
On Jul 23, the parliamentary committee had asked for call audit to prevent any possible loss of government revenue.
The ministry had told the meeting that BTCL collected more than Tk 12.6 billion from 28 IGW operators in revenue in the 2013-14 fiscal.
Tk 1.38 billion came as annual licence fees, it said, adding that another Tk 7 billion was expected from them until June.
According to IGW regulations 1.5 cent is earned from international calls every minute. The government is entitled to 51.75 percent and the IGW businesses must each pay Tk 75 million to renew their licences every year.
Source: bdnews24