Efforts on to fix it out of court: Kamal

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday an effort is underway to settle out of court the dispute between telecoms regulator and operators Grameenphone and Rabi over unpaid dues.
"(A) fruitful discussion is going on. Both of us have come forward," he told the media after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public procurement at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The minister had a follow-up meeting with high officials of the two leading mobile operators.
At the first meeting on this issue on September 18, he promised to find out a "win-win situation" for Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and the operator duo.
BTRC claims that Grameenphone has nearly Tk 125.8 billion and Robi Tk 8.67 billion in arrears to the regulator.
On the other hand, the operators have termed the regulator's claims "unfounded" and "faulty" and filed civil suits to settle the dispute.
Mr Kamal said, "We're trying to resolve the issue out of court."
It was a long-pending issue, he said, adding: "In principle, we've agreed not to file case against any of us."
"We'll resolve the disagreement sitting across the table, across the board," Mr Kamal continued.
Asked whether the government plans to give total waiver of the disputed sum to Grameenphone and Rabi, he answered in the negative.
"Why should we do so? They even didn't seek waiver," said Mr Kamal.
He said the operators have submitted an account which stated that they paid Tk 0.53 to government against their each Tk 1.0 income.
"The government gets more profit when the operators' earnings are big," the minister mentioned.
If the government makes their business sloth, according to Mr Kamal, the revenue generation will be highly affected.
"We don't want that," he said.
Replying to another query, the minister said e-passport would be introduced from next December.
The home minister has assured that the launch of e-passport would not go beyond December, he uttered.

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