A special administrator is expected to be appointed to realise Tk 13,446.95 crore in dues with Grameenphone (GP) and Robi.
The Post and Telecommunication ministry on Thursday approved the appointment and directed Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to proceed in the formalities.
Mostafa Jabbar, Post and Telecommunication Minister told the media on Thursday that the government has been forced to decide to appoint the special administrator to realise the money that belongs to the public as the top telecom companies failed to respond positively to the official communication.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Thursday issued a stay order for two months against the government audit claim of Tk 12579.95 crore from GP claimed by BTRC. The High Court bench of Justice AKM Abdul Hakim and Justice Fatima Nazib passed the order.
In this regard, the telecommunication minister said, “Time has changed now. The age-old policy of halting any good initiative using pretext of court stay would work no more. The government will realise the people’s money at any cost.”
The top two companies telecommunication mobile phone operators claimed in their statement that BTRC's legal notices on September 7, are baseless.
On 2 April this year, the BTRC asked GP to pay Taka 12,579.95 crore in audit claims in 10 days. Of the total amount, Taka 8,494.01 crore is payable to the BTRC and Taka 4,085.94 crore to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), a BTRC-appointed audit firm said.
But in response to the instruction of the telecom regulator, Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Michael Foley at a press conference on 7 July urged the BTRC to withdraw the directives.
In 2015, GP was accused of going back on promises they made to lure customers and then refusing to explain its fraudulent act. The operator promised its tens of millions of subscribers a minute's free talk-time to compensate for frequent call drops and then discontinued it without letting them know, clients alleged to the telecom regulator.
GP and Robi recently filed two separate cases with a Dhaka court, seeking injunctions against BTRC when the BTRC served show-cause notices to the country’s two largest telecom operators, giving them 30 days to reply to explain why their licences should not be cancelled for not paying the dues of Tk 13,447 crore on September 5.
Officials said the telecom regulator is mulling to force the operator to pay the outstanding amount following legal procedures such as stopping issuance of NOC, putting cap on customer base and temporary ban of licence. They said the regulator in the first week of April sent a notice to GP asking to pay Taka 12,579.95 crore as dues and the operator was given two weeks to pay the unpaid amount.
The BTRC has claimed Tk 12,579.95 crore from GP and Tk 867.24 crore from Robi as per the finding of the audits of the two operators. of the Tk. 12,579.95 crore due from GP, Tk. 3,500 crore was earmarked as VAT, Tk 6,000 crore as interest, Tk. 657 crore as royalty fee (which GP claimed that BTRC had waivered in 2009) and Tk. 2,422.95 crore as ‘other fees’.
In the case of Robi, Tk 359 crore was earmarked as VAT, Tk 193 crore as interest, Tk 225 crore as royalty fee (which Robi claimed the BTRC had waivered in 2009) and Tk. 82.24 crore as “other fees”.
