Parliamentary standing committee on Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology ministry yesterday discussed about merger of two state-owned telecommunication companies – Teletalk and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited.
“A committee member placed the issue, but no formal recommendation was made,” Imran Ahmad, Chairman of the committee, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban.
It, however, proposed to rethink the offer and invited a formal proposal.
Meeting sources said committee member Mouazzam Hossain Ratan, a former staff of BTCL, placed the issue at the meeting and said: “Both the companies are owned by the government, then why we allow double expenses for them? We can merge them and they can become a stronger contributor.”
Earlier, the watchdog during the last parliament made same recommendation, when present Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu was the chairman of the committee.
Meeting sources said the committee members also expressed their dissatisfaction over Teletalk’s service as they said the lone government owned mobile phone operator could not create any impact on the market and the network is irritating.
Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddique said the secretary of the ministry became the chairman of Teletalk, BTCL or other companies under the ministry, which is not logical.
Committee members also observed that it was a wrong decision to separate Teletalk from the then Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB).
Teletalk currently have around 33 lakh subscribers while BTCL have around 9 lakh.