Grameenphone has reported TK230 crore revenues in the July-September period from its data services which was TK140 crore at the same period last year.
The company earned TK200 crore from the data service sector in previous quarter.
Dilip Pal, chief financial officer of Grameenphone, came up with the disclosure at a press conference held at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital yesterday.
But unlike earning in data sector, the company’s net profit declined due to SIM replacement dispute with the tax regulator for the July-September period as the operator had to deposit Tk100 crore to start an “out of the court settlement” procedure.
Although the largest cellphone operator’s revenues grew 3.35% to Tk2,647.42 crore in the third quarter of this year, its net profit slipped to 22.53% to Tk414.12 crore.
Replying to the queries, Dilip attributed the deposit to the fall of GP’s net profit.
“Depositing the certain amount of money was a pre-condition for starting the settlement with the National Board of Revenue to begin the long-standing tax dispute, involving nearly Tk1,000 crore with the Grameenphone,” he said.
NBR claimed around Tk3,000 crore from four mobile phone operators -- GP, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel – as SIM card replacement tax. The four took the issue to the tax regulator for settlement.
“We are gaining momentum of performance revival from the headwind experienced from intense price competition and political turmoil during the first quarter of 2015,” said Rajeev Sethi, CEO of Grameenphone.
“Gradually we are observing healthy minutes growth and our data performance is showing encouraging developments. Our clear focus on driving has simplified customer-centric market initiatives which are helping us to create this momentum.”
Of the total 1.52 crore data subscribers or internet users, 1.2 crore clients use 3G services. With a 10.4% rise on a year-on-year basis, GP acquired 40 lakh new subscribers in the first nine months of this year, taking the total subscribers to 5.55 crore by this September.
The market leader mobile operator invested Tk1,470 crore during the first nine months for further rollout of 3G sites, 2G coverage, capacity enhancement for catering higher volume of data and voice as well as enhancement of IT infrastructure for better product and service offerings.
It paid Tk3,880 crore as the largest contributor to the national exchequer during the period.
In the first nine months of this year, the operator’s total revenues rose to Tk7,794.21 crore from Tk7,674.05 crore compared to the same period a year ago.
The net profit, however, slipped to Tk1,461.82 crore in the January-September period from Tk1,592.24 crore last year.