Telenor Group has requested the government to ‘remove’ observations and recommendations made against its subsidiary Grameenphone by a commission in an interim report.
In a letter to the banking and financial institutions under ministry of finance last week, the Telenor officials said observations of the commission known as Geameen Bank Commission contained ‘error’ and should be removed from the final report.
The commission is expected to submit its final report in the current month to the banking and financial institutions of the finance ministry that back up the commission.
In its interim report released last February, the commission observed that Grameenphone had misled the government in some critical issues while signing the agreement on November 11, 1996.
The commission recommended that the government should cancel the operating licence of the Grameenphone.
The commission, however, said that since the mobile phone company was in operation, the government might allow it to continue its operation subject to rectification of the flaws.
The Telenor officials refuted the allegations saying that the jurisdiction of the commission did not extend to Grameenphone or Telenor.
‘Indeed, Grameenphone and Grameen Bank are two wholly separate entities and are in no way linked. Grameenphone is, and always has been, a Telenor Group company,’ said Sigve Brekke, executive vice president and head of the Telenor Asia Operations.
Sigve Brekke said recommendations of the commission created insecurity that might put their ability to ‘make future investments at risk’.
GB commission chairman Mamun ur Rashid told New Age that he was not surprised by the urges of the Telenor officials.
Anybody facing problems with business would make such request, he said, adding that it was up to people to judge the recommendations of the commission.
He said the report was already made public.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Sahara Khatun told Parliament on April 24 that
Grameenphone invested Tk 21,343 crore from 1997 to 2012.
Grameenphone, a household name in the country, increased its clients to 40 million holding 41
per cent of the market share after 2012. It earned Tk 9,000 crore in revenues for 2012 with 3.2 per cent growth.
Sigve Brekke and other Greameenphone officials have already met with the high government officials including finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith in this connection on Monday.
AMA Muhith told reporters on Monday that the government had no intention to scrap the licence of mobile phone operator Grameenphone.
The commission suggessted that Grameenphone might be asked to surrender the licence to Grameen Bank or Grameen Telecom. The government may also scrap the licence now held by Grameenphone Ltd and issue a fresh licence in the name of a trust to be set up anew, it added.
-With New Age input
