The telecom regulatory authority will launch a fresh audit into the country’s mobile phone operators, which is scheduled to start by 2015, said an official yesterday.
According to the telecommunication act, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has the mandate to go for auditing the licenses of the operators on regular basis.
“We have started the process and I hope that we will be able to launch the audit on the mobile operators by 2015 if everything goes as per our plan,” Sunil Kanti Bose, Chairman of BTRC, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He also said: “We have initiated the process for selecting an audit firm, out of the seven firms applied for awarding the order, and the offers are still under scrutiny.’’
As soon as the BTRC selects a firm, the auditor will begin auditing two by two mobile operators, said Sunil Kanti Bose.
Earlier, BTRC ran an audit to the market leading operator Grameenphone and subsequently the firm claimed Tk3,034 crore as unpaid revenue and tax in 2011.
But the Supreme Court in last December upheld a verdict of the High Court that declared illegal the appointment of firms by the BTRC to open audits into mobile phone operators.
Another audit firm of BTRC started audit in the second largest operator in terms of subscribers, Banglalink, although it could not complete the job.
As asked by the Dhaka Tribune to comment on a recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee of the Post Telecommunication and Information Technology ministry, BTRC chairman said, “As there are lots of process for ensuring check and balance of the international incoming calls, it shouldn’t be necessary to run any other separate audit for auditing the call minutes.”
“We have CDR analyser processing system for the International Gateway (IGW) operators and the Interconnection Exchange (ICX) operators will also have it shortly. However, we need to find out a process for mobile or landphone operators (both are the ultimate destination of international calls), so we can monitor international calls,” said Sunil Kanti Bose.