Also to rationalise 2G licence renewal fees
The government plans to reduce SIM taxes, and rationalise the fees for 2G licence renewal and spectrum charges, Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju said yesterday.
“I have already talked to the finance minister so the eight hundred taka tax on SIM [subscriber’s identification module] could be reduced in the upcoming budget,” the minister said at a media briefing at his ministry.
Raju said, only one out of the six mobile phone operators can afford the tax. “As a result, the industry passes the tax on to the subscribers indirectly. So, we are thinking about the issue.”
For long, the mobile operators have been branding the SIM tax as a barrier to reaching rural areas.
Earlier this month, Hasanul Haq Inu, head of the parliamentary standing committee on telecommunications ministry, also joined the call for cutting taxes on new connections, terming the Tk 800 tax on SIM cards “inhumane”.
Raju said they will also sit with four mobile operators to talk about the fees of 2G (second generation) licence renewal, and spectrum charges, which the industry players termed “excessive”, and appealed to the government to make those rational, and in line with the national and regional practices to help the sector’s continual growth.
The 2G licences of Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, and Citycell will expire this November and they will have to pay large amounts of money for renewals.
The four operators together dominate more than 92 percent of the market of seven crore mobile subscribers in the country, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the industry regulator.
The minister also indicated that the fees could be re-fixed. “We hope we will be able to reach an understanding on a give-and-take basis.”
But BTRC Chairman Zia Ahmed, who was also present at the press meet, told journalists that the fees for spectrum were fixed considering the fact that “the four operators enjoyed free spectrum in the last 15 years”.
“We have not taken into consideration the growth of the subscriber base, which is expected to reach 12 crore in the next few years. But it is still up to the government. We have only given our opinion,” Ahmed told The Daily Star.
The minister said state-run Teletalk will be the country’s first mobile operator to launch 3G technology.
China has agreed to lend $211 million to help the bottom-ranked mobile operator introduce the technology. An agreement between the two countries will be signed in China on February 28, the minister added.
He said by June this year, state-run Telephone Shilpa Sangstha will be able to manufacture and market low-cost laptops, to be priced between Tk 15,000 and Tk 21,000 instead of Tk 15,000 single price announced earlier.
He also refused to endorse State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku’s plan to hold mobile phone operators responsible for use of SIM cards in crimes.
Post and Telecommunications Secretary Sunil Kanti Bose was also present at the briefing.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
