Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is likely to file a case against country’s first cellular mobile phone company Citycell to realise Tk 246 crore dues, said officials. BTRC officials said the commission has already initiated a process to file case against Citycell under the Public Demand Recovery Act. ‘Last week the commission decided to issue a show-cause notice to Citycell, seeking explanation why case will not be filed against the company under PDR act to realize the money,’ s senior BTRC official told New Age.
He said the company will be given 21 days to reply to the notice.
‘This is the initial process of filing cases under PDR act. If Citycell fails to reply and pay the dues then BTRC will file the case,’ he said.
‘We have also started a process of cancelling license of the company as we have sent final notice in this regard,’ he said.
The Citycell, however, in reply to the BTRC final notice denied violating any telecom law and thus having any dues.
The company said as it received lower spectrum than the allocation so it would not pay for the entire spectrum.
BTRC officials said Citycell had dues on several accounts including the spectrum charge of 2G licence and annual fees.
‘The major part of the dues came from 2G spectrum and annual fess, which is around Tk 230 crore. In total, Citycell has Tk 246 crore in dues to the government,’ another BTRC official told New Age.
He also said BTRC had issued six letters since December 2013 to Citycell for the payment of the dues but did not receive any response from the operator.
As the first mobile telecom operator, Citycell started its operation in 1993 with CDMA technology.
The latest data of BTRC showed the operator had 12.93 lakh active subscribers in December. – See more at: http://newagebd.net/91066/btrc-likely-to-sue-citycell-to-realise-tk-246cr-in-dues/#sthash.FfOwJbHS.dpuf
-With New Age input
