The Appellate Division on Thursday set November 18 to pass an order over the dues of telecom operator Grameenphone (GP) to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
The Appellate Division bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, fixed the date after a hearing on Thursday.
During the hearing, Grameenphone (GP) informed the apex court that it is ready to pay Tk 200 crore to BTRC as per the proposal it got in a recent meeting with the finance minister and the posts and telecommunications minister.
Grameenphone counsel Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said this at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, while taking part in the hearing on a BTRC plea to stay October 17 High Court order that issued an injunction for two months on realising around Tk 12,580 crore due from GP.
After hearing the case, the Appellate Division full bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain set November 18 to pass order in this regard.
Advocate AM Aminuddin and Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh took part in the hearing for GP, while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Barrister Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib moved the case for the state.
Earlier on October 31, the Supreme Court rejected Grameenphone’s offer of payment Tk100 crore, out of the total audit claim of Tk12,579 crore, to the government.
On October 24, the apex court asked Grameenphone to inform it by October 31 about how much money the operator could pay the government now out of the total audit claim.
On October 17, the High Court issued a two-month injunction on BTRC’s move to realize the money, after Grameenphone appealed to the court.
After the High Court’s rule, BTRC appealed to the Supreme Court about the matter.
After running an audit on the Norway-based company, BTRC in 2016 claimed Tk12,579.95 crore from the mobile phone operator in taxes and late fees accumulated over the years. BTRC ran its first audit back in 2011 on Grameenphone and found financial discrepancies amounting to Tk3,034 crore in the operator's books from its inception in 1996 till March 2011.
Grameenphone then disputed the appointment process of the auditing firm, and after a court ruling BTRC in October 2015 appointed another firm, Toha Khan Zaman & Co, to run a new audit on Grameenphone’s books from its inception until June 2015. GP officials claimed that the methodology in the particular issue of BTRC were questionable.