BTCL flouts telecom law to hike land phone call tariff, line rent

Jamal Uddin The state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) has doubled the line rent -- from Tk. 80 to Tk. 160 -- and call tariff by Tk. 0.15 per minute in the case of the subscribers of its land lines without having necessary approval of the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC). The hike, made effective from November 01, 2012, would help the BTCL to fetch additional revenue worth Tk. 507 million per month, sources said. The abrupt and abnormal rise in the line rent and tariff has angered most BTCL's fixed-line subscribers. According to telecom sector insiders, the BTCL despite being a licensee of the BTRC like other telecom operators of the country does not seek approval from the latter for change of tariff and other charges as required under the Bangladesh Telecommunications Act 2001. Being a state-owned operator, it continues to defy the legal requirement. The BTCL has also doubled the monthly line rate of land phone to Tk 120 from Tk 70 for district and upazila level users. Besides, the company increased call rate to Tk 0.80 per minute from the previous rate of Tk 0.65. The operator has 0.8 million active subscribers across the country of which 0.616 million are paying the line rent at Tk 160 while 0.184 million Tk.120 per month, according to the billing of November last. Preferring not to be quoted, a top official of BTCL told the FE on Tuesday that it did not have to take BTRC permission in the matters of tariff and other charges of land line subscribers. "However, we take prior approval for international call and inter operator issues", he said. A number of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) officials confirmed the FE that every PSTN (public switched telephone network) operator requires approval of the BTRC prior to the introduction of new tariff, charges and package as per the telecom act and the BTCL is not beyond that law. The officials said they overlook the flouting of the law by the BTCL as the high-ups of the telecom ministry are involved with the latter's policy making. "According to the telecom act, PSTN operators have to take prior approval of BTRC for any kind of tariff and charges. But it may be that BTRC is showing reluctance to enforce law regarding the government entity, said AKM Shamsuddin, Chief Executive Officer of Rankstel. Mahmud Hossain, head of corporate affairs of GP, told the FE that BTCL was like any other mobile phone and PSTN operator. So BTRC should apply the rules to all operators irrespective of their ownership. Section 48 (1) of telecom act 2001 says: 'Approval of tariff' -- "An operator shall, before providing service, submit to the Commission a tariff containing the maximum and minimum charges that may be realized for such service, and until the tariff is approved by the Commission, the operator shall not start providing the service or realizing charges for the service". Habibur Rahman, an official of private firm, said his monthly land phone bill used to be less than Tk 100, but he is now paying Tk. 160 for only as line rate, "It is not acceptable". BTCL director Rafiqul Matin explaining the reasons for the hike in line rent and tariff said, "Maintenance cost and the price of copper cable have increased manifold during last few years. Even his company has to count extra money for replacing the stolen cable lines," he mentioned. "So there was no alternative but to raise the line rent to offset the rising expenditures," the official claimed. It is mentioned that the revenue earning of the state run land phone operator from local source has gone down nearly 50 per cent in last ten year because of the increased use of mobile phones. The BTCL earned around Tk 6.32 billion in FY 2011-12 which was Tk 12.08 billion in FY 2002-03 according to the annual report of the company. The BTCL, then BTTB (Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board) had brought down the call rate to Tk.15 per minute when private PSTN operators emerged as major competitors. Besides, procedures of getting new land lines were made easy to woo more subscribers. But with the cancellation of licences of private land line operators on the allegation of illegal VoIP operations, the BTCL got back its monopoly and started punishing its subscribers by raising tariff and line rent, an angry subscriber told the FE.