The government and top mobile phone operators have reached a consensus over settling the disputed audit claims amicably.
The Grameenphone, the country's largest cellphone firm by users, sat with finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at the Secretariat on Wednesday.
Post and Telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar, chairman of the National Board of Revenue Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, and Grameenphone CEO Michael Foley attended the meeting.
"We are expecting to settle the issue within the next two to three weeks through discussions," Mr Kamal told reporters.
Mr Kamal expressed the hope that the solution will be transparent and acceptable to both parties.
This will be through alternative dispute resolution, or ADR system, the NBR chairman said.
Adding Mr Kamal said, "We're settling it outside the court."
Earlier on August 25 and August 26, mobile operators Robi and Grameenphone filed two cases with a Dhaka court, seeking permanent injunctions on the telecom regulator's audit claims of Tk 134.47 billion.
On September 5, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) issued showcause notices on the operators, asking them to explain within 30 days why their licences would not be scrapped for not paying the dues.
Mr Kamal said the GP will withdraw its cases while both the government and the GP would sit across the table to resolve it.
"The government will lose revenues if the dispute goes on; for this reason we are favouring an amicable solution," he added.
Post and telecommunications minister Mostafa Jabbar expressed his optimism about resolving the problem through discussions and said no such situation would be created, which will hamper the environment of doing business.
The national exchequer cannot suffer, he said, adding that he was hopeful about a win-win solution this time.
NBR chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the BTRC's audit claim from the GP is around Tk 80 billion of which around 60 to 70 per cent is interest.
He said the NBR's claims of around 45 billion are not considered interest.
He said the GP wanted to settle through an arbitrator but the BTRC rules do not allow such a process.
"We're in the process of realising this amount through ADR," the NBR chief said.
Grameenphone CEO Michael Patrick Foley said there are certain issues which have to be resolved only through discussions.
"When we say amicably, we'll remove all the obstacles and we're now looking for a status quo," Mr Foley said.
He said Grameenphone wants to resolve it through discussion and strike a deal in this regard as quickly as possible in a transparent and fair manner.
Replying to a question, the GP CEO said his company has always paid "justified" dues to the government.
Robi also welcomed the decision of the government on resolving the disputed audit claims.
"With today's announcement, we believe the much protracted impasse in the telecom sector will finally come to an end much to the delight of the industry stakeholders," said Shahed Alam, Robi's chief corporate and regulatory officer.
"Even though the government and our customers have had to go through a major setback due to this unnecessary and very avoidable impasse, we are confident that we can recover all the losses with the immediate resumption of large scale investment," he added.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com
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