BTRC gets green light

The ministry of posts and telecommunications on Thursday gave its approval for the telecom regulator to appoint administrators at Grameenphone and Robi to oversee the operations of the country's two biggest mobile operators.
"The decision on appointing administrators in the two operators has been taken," Mustafa Jabbar, post and telecommunication minister, told the Financial Express. "There were some formalities from the ministry side and we approved it," he added.
"Now, the BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) can go ahead with appointing the administrators," he said.
On Tuesday, the telecom regulator sought the ministry's green signal for hiring at least four separate administrators at the Grameenphone and Robi as the companies failed to pay Tk 134.46 billion in government audit claims.
A BTRC commissioner said the government would appoint eminent personalities, acceptable to all, as the administrators.
There will be three more technical persons to help the administrators handle legal, engineering and finance-related matters, according to the BTRC.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal last month stepped in as a mediator and announced that he would start a negotiation with the carriers and the regulator to settle the issue amicably.
On September 18, the finance minister in a meeting with the two mobile operators said that the longstanding dispute about the audit claim would be resolved within three weeks.
A proposal to form two neutral committees to revise the audit findings was placed in a meeting on October 3.
"But nothing worked due non-cooperation from the operators," the BTRC commissioner said.
On September 5, the BTRC sent two showcause notices to the operators asking why their licences would not be revoked for the failure to pay the dues found in audit.
In response, both the operators claimed that the BTRC showcause notices to be invalid as the issue of audit claim was sub-judice.
In late August, both GP and Robi filed separate cases with the court challenging the audit claim before the BTRC had issued the missives.
The BTRC chief said the commission made the decision after reviewing the replies of the operators on the notices.
After an audit of the two mobile phone operators, the BTRC in 2016 claimed Tk125.79 billion from GP, the country's largest telecom service sector, and Tk 8.67 billion from Robi, the second-largest operator, in taxes and late fees accumulated over several years.
Of the total, the principal audit claim from Robi was around Tk 3.15 billion and around Tk 63.85 billion from Grameenphone.
In July, the BTRC slashed GP's bandwidth by 30 per cent and Robi's by 15 per cent for failing to clear the dues.
But they lifted the block on bandwidth after two weeks considering the inconvenience it was causing to the users.
On July 22, the BTRC decided not to give any kind of approval to the two mobile phone operators to roll out new packages or services, or import network equipment to force them pay off.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Thursday froze for two months a lower court order requiring GP to clear the arrears, reports bdnews24.com.
Justice AKM Abdul Hakim and Justice Fatema Najib passed the stay order after agreeing to hear the mobile telecom operator's appeal on the matter.
They subsequently adjourned the hearing until Nov 5.
Lawyers AM Amin Uddin, Sharif Bhuiyan and Tanim Hossain Shaon argued the case for Grameenphone while Khandaker Reza-e-Rakib represented the BTRC.
A lower court had admitted GP's title suit and kept it pending, according to lawyer Tanim.
On Thursday, GP reaffirmed its commitment to "reaching a transparent and amicable resolution" to the disputed BTRC audit claim through a constructive dialogue.
The High Court division passed a stay order restraining the BTRC from taking any steps towards realisation or enforcement of the audit demand, said Hossain Sadat, head of regulatory affairs and acting head of communications at GP in a statement.

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