The government has set a huge target of Tk13,829 crore revenue collection for the telecom regulator in 2014-15 fiscal year, which is 38% higher than the previous collection of FY 2014.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has incorporated 700 band spectrum auction in this fiscal from which it wants to realise Tk9,300 crore for selling 80 Megahertz of spectrum, a senior official told the Dhaka Tribune.
The large target also crated anxiety among telecom operators as they said during the last fiscal the government collected more than Tk5,000 crore from the 3G spectrum auction and one-off installment of 2G licence renewal.
How will the regulator reach the target if they fail to hold an auction for 700 band spectrum this year? the telecom operators posed the question.
Requesting not to be named, a senior executive of a telecom company said to meet the target the regulator may get tough on them and they are concerned about it.
The BTRC is likely to face a huge pressure in regard to their promised revenues collection before the end of this fiscal.
BTRC declared its target for this fiscal in a parliamentary standing committee meeting held on August 10, but it has not provided any details.
At that meeting, BTRC also claimed of the total revenues the government earns at least 10% from the telecom sector.
The BTRC mainly collects revenues from revenue sharing from the operators, annual spectrum fees and annual licence fees along with other fees, according to the regulator sources.
Mobile operators deposited 5.5% of their gross revenues which is close to Tk1,500 crore with 1% for social obligation fund and this is the BTRC’s main source of revenues.
The regulator also collect around Tk2,000 crore annually from the International Gateway (IGW) and Interconnection (ICX) operators.
According to the working paper of the parliamentary standing committee meeting, the telecom watchdog also said its has so far collected Tk34,692.23 crore after BTRC started its journey in 2001.
Data shows the regulator collected Tk5,404 crore from the market in FY 2012-13.
It also collected Tk6,957 crore in FY 2011-12, Tk3,047 crore in FY 2010-11, Tk2,370 crore in FY 2009-10 and Tk3,195 crore in FY 2008-09.
A senior official of BTRC said as they received more money than their target in 2013-14 the government became more optimistic about the high revenues.
In the last fiscal, the target was Tk9,398 crore, but the actual collection was Tk10,016 crore and after deducting all other expenses BTRC deposited Tk9,722 crore to Bangladesh Bank, which was the highest non-tax revenues for the government.
The telecom regulator has also formed a special committee to prepare auction for 700 band spectrum to be made available for mobile phone operators within this fiscal.
Earlier they planned to hold auction for it by 2016.