International Gateway Operators Forum, a cartel of IGW operators, is lobbying with the government high-ups to get retrospective effect of the slashed revenue sharing and international call termination rate from July 1. The IGWOF in a letter to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Tuesday requested that the new call termination rate of US 1.5 cents instead of 3 cents should be applicable from July 1.
The BTRC on September 18, following telecom ministry’s order, issued a directive to lower the international call termination rate and government revenue sharing to 40 per cent from 51.75 per cent.
The revenue sharing of the IGW operators, however, was raised to 20 per cent from 13.25 per cent.
BTRC officials said the ministry order clearly stated that the new rates would be applicable from the date of issuance of the order.
‘But a group of the IGW operators are pressing the government to make the new rates and revenue sharing model effective from July 1,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Thursday.
He said the IGWOF in a letter to the telecom regulator on Tuesday said that the call volume has increased after the government lowered the call transmission rate.
As the IGW operators faced serious financial trouble before the rate cut so the government should allow the retrospective effect to the new rates, said the IGWOF letter.
It also said that as the IGW operators share revenue on a quarterly basis so the new rates should be applicable from the beginning of a quarter.
BTRC officials said that the commission would not give any opinion on the matter.
‘We will just forward the application to the ministry as it is the proper authority to decide on this,’ another BTRC official told New Age.
BTRC officials said that if the government allows retrospective effect to the new call rate then it would cause an additional loss of around Tk 345 crore to the government.
Telecom secretary Faizur Rahman Chowdhury, however, earlier in October told the media that the new rates would be applicable from the issuance date.
‘When the ministry sent the approval to BTRC it clearly said that the new rates would come into effect from the approval date. There is no scope to give retrospective effect to the new rate,’ said Faizur.
BTRC officials said that the call charges and revenue sharing rates were lowered mainly to give benefits to the 25 IGWs which got licences in 2012 because of their strong connections with the ruling Awami League.
The then telecom minister Latif Siddique, however, also told media that the new rates would be applicable from July 1.
BTRC officials said buoyed by Latif’s announcement of retrospective effect, some IGW operators already paid the mobile phone operators the revenue share of July-August period according to the new rates and revenue sharing model. ‘In some cases mobile companies were forced to accept the new rates with the date of effect from July 1,’ said an official.
A senior official of a mobile company, however, told New Age that the some IGW operators recently shared the revenue of July-August period according to the previous rate.
‘After the telecom minister was removed by the government, some IGWs shared revenue in previous rate for July-August period,’ he said.
-With New Age input
