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Corporate tax of GP, BATBC to go up

Admin — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:55:51 +0000

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Thursday proposed an increase of the corporate tax by 5 per cent on publicly listed mobile phone and tobacco manufacturing companies.
Muhith in his budget speech for the financial year 2013-14 proposed that the corporate tax for listed mobile phone companies and tobacco companies would be 40 per cent from existing 35 per cent.
Among the six mobile phone companies operating in the country only Grameenphone is listed with the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges.
The GP, the largest mobile operator of the country with a subscriber base of 4.23 crore, reported 7 per cent decline in its net profit to Tk 1,750.47 crore in 2012.
British American Tobacco Bangladesh is the only tobacco manufacturing company listed with the bourses and it reported net profit of 394.16 crore in 2012.
Corporate tax on other sectors including banks, insurance and other financial institutions remained the same as the previous budget.
Asked about the issue in a statement GP said, ‘We view this as another attempt to penalize the successful and responsible companies. We belong to an industry that is already heavily taxed and this will be an extra burden. This will affect our general shareholders as it will have a negative impact on the dividend. Moreover this move will discourage other companies which are considering to be listed in the stock market. It is also worth mentioning that Grameenphone is the only listed mobile operator in the country who will be directly affected by this change.’

-With New Age input

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Undue frequency allocation by BTRC causes Tk 840cr govt loss

Admin — Sun, 26 May 2013 05:05:56 +0000

CAG audit finds GP, Banglalink, Robi get frequency at lower rate
The government lost Tk 840 crore in revenue as Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in 2008 allocated additional 12 MHz frequency to three mobile phone companies for 18 years with lower charges, a government audit found.
The BTRC unduly allocated the 12 MHz frequency to three operators for 18 years in 2008 whereas the license validity of the companies was scheduled to expire in 2011, revealed the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office.
The telecom regulator allocated additional 7.4 MHz frequency to Grameenphone, 2.6 MHz frequency to Banglalink and 2 MHz frequency to Aktel in 2008 for 18 years and took payment at a price of Tk 80 crore for each MHz.
It said the BTRC in 2005 formulated the Spectrum Pricing Policy and fixed the price of per MHz frequency of GSM 1800 band at Tk 80 crore in 2008.
The BTRC in 2011 formulated the regulatory and licensing guideline for the mobile operators and set per MHz price for GSM 1800 band at Tk 150 crore.
‘The license validity of the three companies was supposed to expire in 2011, so the BTRC in 2008 should not have allocated the frequency for additional 15 years,’ said that CAG report.
‘Before any government decision about the license renewal of the three companies, the BTRC unduly allocated the frequency for additional 15 years which caused the revenue loss,’ the audit report said.
The mobile companies renewed their licences in 2012 with effect from 2011.
Considering the market competition factor, the BTRC should adjust the current price of per MHz, which is Tk 150 crore, with that of 2008 as the companies got the frequency allocation beyond their license validity, said the report.
It is also mandatory to find the responsible persons who decided to provide such undue favour, it said.
In response to the audit objection, the BTRC said, as no operator was willing to take the frequency allocation for three years before their license expiry date at the cost of Tk 80 crore per MHz, the commission allocated the frequency for 18 years as per ‘operators’ demand’.
The BTRC claimed the decision of allocating frequency was ‘logical’.
Following the BTRC reply, the Post and Telecommunication ministry suggested the CAG office to dispose of the audit objection.
The audit office, however, rejected the BTRC reply and recommended for collecting Tk 840 crore either from the three operators or the BTRC officials liable for the decision.
‘The BTRC allocated the frequency for 18 years knowingly that the licenses will be expiring in three years. Spectrum frequency is a limited government resource which the BTRC should ensure proper use,’ it said as a reason for rejecting the BTRC reply.
‘We have given our reply to the audit office. If the CAG office is not satisfied with our reply it can place the objection before parliament. Then we will take action as per the decision of the Public Accounts Committee of the parliament,’ BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told New Age when asked about the issue.
Officials of three mobile companies declined to comment on the audit objection.

-With New Age input

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Telcos could use surplus funds for 3G payments

Admin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:02:53 +0000

Clarifies BTRC
The mobile phone companies would be allowed to use own surplus funds for paying the licence fee, spectrum acquisition fee and roll-out expense for obtaining 3G licence,
the telecom regulator has recently clarified the operators.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission sent a clarification to the mobile phone companies after the operators submitted more than 100 questions to the commission about various aspects of the 3G guideline.
The BTRC clarification also said the operators would be allowed to get loans from local sources during the 36 months of roll-out period if any operators can meet the roll-out criteria before the deadline.
It also allowed operators to sell the asset to any foreign buyers for paying the licence fee, spectrum acquisition fee and roll-out expense of the 3G operation.
According to the 3G guideline, any foreign partner of an entity who wins the 3G auction will have to invest foreign currency directly equal to its percentage of ownership.
It also said no loans from any local sources will be allowed to any foreign partner of a firm for making payment of any 3G-related services.
The BTRC is scheduled to hold the 3G auction for awarding four 3G mobile service licences as per the guideline on June 24.
The telecom regulator will award three licences to three out of five mobile companies operating in the country and one to any foreign firm. Another local operator, the state-run Teletalk, has already got the 3G licence by default.
A total 40 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned for eight blocks where a single bidder will be able to bid for maximum two blocks. The operators could get one additional block if any block remains unsold.
The minimum allocation for a spectrum block is 5 MHz with base price of $20 million for each MHz.
The validity period for a 3G licence will be 15 years which would be renewed in every five years.

-With New Age input

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BTRC to go tough on mobile phone operators

Admin — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:13:25 +0000

Bill Shocks After Promotional Offers
BTRC to go tough on mobile phone operators
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is likely to go tough on the mobile phone operators as many subscribers are facing bill shocks after availing themselves of different promotional or campaign offers.
BTRC officials said the commission would issue a directive to the mobile phone companies to disconnect the campaign offer services once the campaign period is over.
‘To promote new packages or bundle offers, the mobile phone operators provide some services for free or at a lower cost for a specific period of time once a user subscribes to those services. Once the promotional campaign ends, in many cases the operators start charging the users at the regular rate, whereas the subscribers remain unaware of the fact,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
‘As a result, the users incur huge amount of charges without knowing what is going on as the mobile phone companies do not maintain a standard policy for unsubscribing from such services,’ he said.
He said the BTRC would issue a directive to the mobile phone companies to stop such services once the campaigns are over and send notifications to the subscribers concerned.
‘If a subscriber is still willing to avail her/himself of the service with regular tariff, then they will get him registered again,’ he said.
BTRC officials said that earlier the mobile phone companies used to be given such bundle approval with a mandatory subscription renewal of six months to three months.
‘But, on many occasions, the mobile phone companies do not comply with those periodic subscription renewal directives,’ said another BTRC official.
The BTRC last year drafted some amendments to its Interim Directives on SMS-based Premium Rate Services and Interim Directives on Tariff and Marketing Promotion that also proposed to bar such practices by the mobile phone companies.
The Section 6 of the draft amendments to the Joint Directives (PRS & Promotion) said that the mobile phone companies have to provide an SMS service named ‘List’ that lists all the registered services a subscriber is using at a given moment so that the user can see it whenever s/he wants.
It said the ‘List’ service must provide an option to the subscribers to disconnect any or all registered services through SMSs.
‘Although the draft was sent for public opinion in September 2011, the commission is yet to finalise it because of the pressure from mobile phone companies,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.

-With New Age input

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GP, Banglalink fail to meet BTRC deadline

Admin — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 15:47:58 +0000

10-Second Pulse
GP, Banglalink fail to meet BTRC deadline
Two leading mobile phone operators failed to implement the directive of telecom regulators to introduce 10-second pulse on each mobile call within the latest deadline that ended on Saturday.
Four other companies also failed to introduce flat call rate or same rate for every minute of a call within the same deadline set by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Officials of the largest cellphone company Grameenphone and second largest operator Banglalink, which did not introduce the mandatory 10-second pulse and flat call rate within the deadline, said the companies need more time.
Three mobile operators — Robi, Citycell and Airtel — launched the mandatory 10-second pulse on each calls on Saturday but Robi and Citycell did not introduce the flat call rate.
An official of the Airtel claimed the company’s existing call rates are flat.
The other operator, state-run Teletalk, implemented the BTRC decision on 10-second pulse within the first deadline of August 15 and flat call rate by Saturday.
BTRC in July asked the six operators to introduce 10-second pulse by August 15 to give more benefits to the consumers who were forced to pay bills for 1 minute even if they talk for 1 second in majority of the packages.
The commission later extended the deadline to September 15 after the operators sought more time for introducing the 10-second pulse. The commission also asked the operators to introduce flat tariff rate in the same directive.
Robi, the third largest operator with two crore subscriber, in a statement Saturday said it was introducing 10-second pulse for each calls, including interactive voice response, from Saturday in line with the BTRC directive.
Robi vice-president, communication and media relation, Mohiuddin Babar, however, told New Age that they were yet to introduce flat tariff rate in all packages. ‘We will introduce flat rate in all packages in phases starting from this week,’ he said.
GP, however, in a statement on Saturday said, ‘Grameenphone has every intention to implement BTRC’s directive on 10 second pulse but given the size of our customer base and number of products we need more time to satisfactorily complete this transition.’
‘We have already requested BTRC to extend the time to let us implement 10 second pulse in all our package by maintaining all relevant procedure to ensure customer satisfaction.’
The operator with around 4 crore subscriber said it had already started the process and re-launched one of its existing packages with 10 second pulse and flat tariff.
BTRC officials said GP on Thursday applied for a time extension of around 45 days for implementing the BTRC decision.
Banglalink still remained reluctant to implement the BTRC decision.
Its senior director, marketing, Shihab Ahmed in a statement said, ‘We believe it will be detrimental if the customers are left with no choice of their own if the 10 second pulse is implemented.’
It, however, said if the BTRC insists then they would implement 10 second pulse.
Another Banglalink official said the company was yet to introduce flat call rate.
He said they would implement the BTRC decision in phases.

Courtesy of New Age

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