International Gateway Operators (IGWs) yesterday withdrew their writ petition filed earlier to claim retrospective effect of the reduced call termination rates, finally paving the path for both the government and the private operators to get around Tk500 crore.
Some International Gateway Operators (IGWs) filed a writ petition in November last, claiming retrospective effect of the reduced call termination rate from July 1, 2014.
On September 18 last year, international call termination rate was reduced to 1.5 US cents per minute from 3 cents, following an approval by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
According to the approval, the new rate and revenue sharing structure was supposed to come into effect from the date of issuance.
A lawyer of the IGW operators filed an application with the court yesterday, expressing their unwillingness to proceed further with the writ just before the scheduled hearing.
“As our clients have decided not to continue the legal battle, we’ve withdrawn the writ petition,” Advocate Sha Monjurul Haque, a counselor of IGW’s, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Advocate Monjurul Haque, however, declined to explain further the reason behind the sudden mind change by the IGWs.
After filing writ petition, which sought the retrospective effect claim, five IGWs – Global Voice Ltd, Roots Communication, Unique Infoway Ltd, Digicon Communication and Apple Networks – also claimed instalments for one year.
All these five IGWs owe Tk373.46 crore to BTRC.
According to BTRC, Global Voice Ltd owes Tk91.18 crore, Roots Communication owes Tk37.58 crore, Unique Infoway Ltd Tk78.93 crore, Digicon Communication owes Tk76.36 crore and Apple Networks owes Tk89.41 crore to BTRC.
BTRC’s total outstanding to IGW’s now stands at Tk1,148.22 crore only for private operators.
BTRC counselor Barrister Khandaker Reza-e-Raquib said: “After withdrawal of the writ petition by IGW’s, now it is up to the BTRC’s authority to make any decision, which all the IGWs are obliged to follow to run their business.”
According to available data, during the months of July, August and the first 17 days of September, the total incoming international call duration was 465 crore minutes.
If the termination rate and revenue sharing structures are calculated as per the previous rates, the market price of the calls would be valued at US$139.5m including a $72.2m share (51.75%) for the BTRC.
However, as the IGW operators chose to make payments under the slashed rates of 40% revenue sharing for BTRC and 1.5 cent termination rate, BTRC’s share came down to only $27.9m.
The share for the ANS operators, which would have been $27.9m under the previous rate, was also reduced to become $15.7m.
If the deficit between the shares of the IGW and ICX operators under the previous and the new rates are also taken into account, then the total deficit between the two rates of payment would be around Tk500 crore.
