The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has allowed paying utility bills from abroad through mobile balance recharge, said a BTRC directive.
The telecom regulator last week issued a fresh no objection certificate in favour of the international payment and recharge service operators where it said service providers of electricity, gas, water, sewerage etc would have to pay commission to the IPRS operators.
It also said all the licensees of the BTRC would have to pay commission to the IPRS operators against their service.
‘Locally there are already services to pay utility bills through mobile recharge, now we have allowed the model internationally,’ a BTRC official told New Age recently.
He said through the service people living abroad could be able to pay directly the utility bills in Bangladesh by recharging mobile balance.
For amount less than Tk 1 lakh the commission will be 2 per cent. The commission will be 2.5 per cent for Tk 1 lakh to Tk 9.99 lakh, 3 per cent for Tk 10 lakh to Tk 49.99 lakh, 3.5 per cent for Tk 50 lakh to Tk 99.99 lakh, 4 per cent for Tk 1 crore to Tk 1.99 crore, 4.5 per cent for Tk 2 crore to Tk 4 crore and the commission will be 5 per cent for Tk 5 crore and above, said the NOC.
It also said the operators would not be allowed to take any premier charge against mobile recharge and they have to make prior agreement with the mobile phone operators for the service.
The recharge amount shall be used as mobile talk-time and utility-bill payment, the NOC said. ‘The amount shall not be converted into any other offer like gift, prize, merchandise etc,’ it said.
The NOC allowed the IPRS operators to provide competitive foreign currency selling exchange rate but that cannot be more than 2 per cent as mark-up declared by Bangladesh Bank on that day.
The BTRC in 2013 allowed 13 firms to provide international recharge service which allows loading mobile balance from abroad.
-With New Age input
