Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is likely to block operation of more international gateway operators who would fail to pay their dues by today, said the commission officials. The BTRC on December 1 had asked all the IGWs to pay their dues by December 25, they said. ‘The IGWs who will fail to pay their dues by today will be blocked without any further notice,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Monday.
He said the total outstanding of the IGW operators is more than Tk 150 crore.
The BTRC earlier blocked operation of 10 IGWs for their outstanding dues of Tk 275 crore after they failed to make payment within September 25 deadline.
At that time BTRC blocked operation of Ranks Tel, Moss Fivetel Limited, SM Communications, Venus Telecom, Sigma Engineers Ltd, Fast Communications, Vision Telecom, Ratul Telecom and Apple Network Ltd.
BTRC officials said some of those blocked IGW operators paid some partial payments during the time but again failed to pay their dues recently.
The BTRC in November sought permission from the telecommunication ministry to cancel licenses of Telex Ltd and Ratul Telecom on the same ground.
BTRC officials said the telecom regulator already blocked the operation of the two companies as Telex failed to pay its dues worth Tk 85 crore and Ratul worth Tk 90 crore, missing several deadlines to clear the payment.
They said most of the IGWs escaped harsh punishment and were permitted to run the business because of their connection with ruling party politicians.
They also said a section of BTRC officials were favouring the IGW operators which got licences on political consideration for their personal gains.
The BTRC recently slashed the annual licence fee for the international gateway operators by 50 per cent which would cause a Tk 108.75 crore yearly revenue loss for the government.
BTRC’s latest amendment to the IGW guidelines last week said that the new annual licence fee would be Tk 3.75 crore from previous Tk 7.50 crore and it would be applicable from 2014.
The present Awami League-led government awarded 25 more IGW licences – mostly to people linked with the ruling party.
The BTRC had proposed at best 10 more licences, but the government last year awarded 25 IGW, 23 ICX and 34 IIG licences raising the number of gateway licences to 91.
-With New Age input
