Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) revenue has declined by 32% as the regulatory body failed to fulfil its target in the wake of a series of complexities with the mobile operators.
An official of the telecom watchdog said BTRC deposited only Tk1,440 crore to the national exchequer, in the first half of the fiscal year 2014-15 (July to December).
Initially, the revenue collection was estimated to be Tk13,660 crore, and now its revenue collection stands at 31.56% to Tk6,902 crore for the current fiscal year in its revised budget.
In the last fiscal year, BTRC collected Tk10,085 crore as the government revenue was the highest in its history.
“Had the regulatory body arranged the spectrum auctions – 1,800MHz band and 2,100MHz band, the government could have earned TK3,000 crore,” Sunil Kanti Bose, top boss of the regulatory body, recently said while talking to journalists
Because of apparently unlikely arrangement of the spectrum auctions on June 10, BTRC will bring no loss, but it will miss the target of revenue collection in the departing fiscal year.
BTRC fixed the price of per megahertz spectrum of 1,800MHz band at $3 crore and of 2,100MHz band at $2.20 crore in the auction bid.
The spectrum auctions have been deferred thrice to 10th June.
The telecom regulator became the highest non-tax revenue collector for the government over the last couples of year, senior officials of BTRC said, but this time they failed.
If the operators cashed owed revenues and arranged fresh spectrum auctions, collection would rise in the next fiscal year.
Teletalk, the state-run mobile operator, paid only Tk60 crore for 3G licence although the total fee was Tk1,627 crore.
Another state-owned telecom company Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) owes BTRC Tk1,680 crore, he mentioned.
Revenue collection fell short of Tk1,171 crore from private international gateway operators.
BTRC also planned a 40MHz spectrum auction on 700 band for LTE to earn Tk7,775 crore, but it reversed from the decision when the mobile operators showed disinterest to attend the auction for this band now.
Sources said in FY2012-13, BTRC earned Tk5,404 crore from operators.
The Finance Ministry upped the BTRC revenue target by 20% to 30%.
But compared with 2013-14 fiscal year earning, BTRC’s revenue collection went down 31.56% for 2014-15.
The higher collection was driven in 2013-14 for spectrum auction of 3G mobile broadband, and for fulfilling the biggest target, the telecom watchdog also planned for more spectrum auction this year which is now far beyond.
The Finance Ministry also sought clarification on the diminutions. In its reply, BTRC said less revenue earning from the mobile phone operators impacted its total earnings.
Declining the international call termination rate also led to reduction of the revenue earning.
