The government will take stern measures to realize outstanding money from all the mobile phone operators after completing the audits to calculate the government's dues, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar has said.
"The audits on two operators (Grameenphone and Robi) have already been conducted and those on others will also be carried out," he said on Tuesday while replying to a supplementary question from Jatiya Party MP Mujibul Haque Chunnu at the parliament on Tuesday.
"Stern measures will be taken to realize the outstanding money (from the operators)," he said, reports UNB.
The minister said whenever the government moves to take initiatives to realize the outstanding money from any mobile operator, the process get delayed as the operators go to the court.
"This is why the outstanding money has remained unrealized for long," he said.
Noting that the government has outstanding money due from two mobile phone operators - Grameenphone and Robi - he said different measures were taken, including slashing 30% bandwidth capacity of GP and 15% of Robi.
Mustafa Jabbar said Grameenphone has a total of Tk12,800 crore in dues to the government.
The minister said the government faces problems in some cases if it tries to take any tough measures against mobile phone operators.
If the government cancels Grameenphone's license, then the people will be the ones who ultimately suffer.
"This is why we have to think about taking stern action considering people's concern," he added.
