Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said it would take legal action to recover Tk26bn outstanding revenues from different telecom service companies.
If the companies continue to default, the regulator may even propose the government cancel their licences, said BTRC sources.
The unpaid revenues include spectrum fee, revenue sharing and annual licence fee.
Already, BTRC has served notices to the defaulting firms asking to pay the revenues. Otherwise, it would go to the court seeking solution under the Public Demands Recovery Act 1913.
“If our efforts to recover the money do not work, we may even propose the government to cancel licences,” Md Giashuddin Ahmed, vice chairman of BTRC, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He added: “The commission is going to be stricter to collect public money.” Earlier, BTRC informed the government about the uncollected revenue and said it was “not able to collect more than Tk26.11bn from different telecom service providers as of June 2013.”
The regulator is now looking for all possible legal ways to make the operators pay their dues. According to an official report, the state-owned land phone operator Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) owes BTRC around Tk16.25bn of the total Tk26.11bn.
The state-owned mobile phone operator Teletalk has defaulted Tk315.8m. Private operator Citycell owes Tk1.45bn.
The report said outstanding revenues from some 28 private international gateway (IGW) operators have crossed Tk8.39bn.
Of them, only six IGW operators’ share is more than Tk5.37bn.
Allegations are there that those six operators have political backings.
BTRC has asked Teletalk to deposit the outstanding payment immediately while the Citycell is going get notice today, said the regulator sources. However, Citycell sent a letter to the BTRC on Thursday seeking a three-month time for the payment and adjustment of their allocated spectrum.
Of those connected with politically influential people, BTRC already recommended cancelling licence of Ratul Telecom Limited. This company is owned by Syeda Amrin Rakhi and Syeda Arzuman Banu. They are respectively daughter and wife State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak. Ratul Telecom owes Tk890m to BTRC.
The telecom ministry did not take action in line with the BTRC recommendation, rather Ratul was given the opportunity to pay the money in three instalments.
Besides, the total due of the Interconnection Exchange (ICX) operators stood at Tk2.11bn while that of International Internet Gateway (IIG) amounts to Tk3m.
Most of the IGW and ICX operators have not paid their annual licence renewal fee.
The two Wi-Max operators- Banglalion and Qubee- owe respectively Tk294.8m and Tk151.2m to the telecom regulator.
Besides, some 12 private land phone (PSTN) operators have not paid Tk293.4m.
Different private companies, internet service providers (ISPs) and some government departments have not deposited spectrum charges amounting to Tk241.8m, said the BTRC report.
Source: UNBConnect
