The telecom minister on Sunday had a closed-door meeting with representatives of six international gateway operators, who were reportedly lobbying with her to mitigate their dues to BTRC.
Among those present were two IGW owners Health Minister Ruhal Haq and Sayda Amrin Rakhi, daughter of state minister for local government Jahangir Kabir Nanak. Nanak was also present.
Health minister’s IGW, Mos5 Tel Limited, has Tk250m outstanding dues in revenue sharing to telecom regulator BTRC.
Ratul Telecom Limited, run by Nanak’s daughter, owes Tk750m.
In the two-hour meeting the companies and the ministers also reportedly asked Telecom Minister Sahara Khatun to cut the international call termination rate from $.03 to $.015 per minute.
SM Communication Limited CEO Arifur Rahman was also present in the meeting. His company’s dues are Tk300m.
When asked about the meeting, Nanak told the Dhaka Tribune he had simply paid a visit to his senior colleague to talk about development in his constituency.
“There were some discussions about IGW but I can’t tell you about that. The IGW representatives and the telecom minister may be able to tell you,” he said.
Nanak’s daughter Rakhi owns half of Rupayan Group’s Ratul Telecom Limited, while another 20% is owned by Nanak’s wife Sayda Arzuman Banu.
Sources said Rupayan Group had obtained its IGW licence after lobbying efforts by Nanak.
At the end of December last year, Ratul Telecom had a minimum due of Tk80,000. But in the last six months, they have not paid any money to the regulator.
When asked, Nanak refused to comment on the issue.
Immediately after the meeting Telecom Minister Sahara Khatun called the BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose and held a meeting with him.
When asked about these meetings, Sahara Khatun told the Dhaka Tribune: “Anybody can come to me as I am the minister of this ministry. Two of my colleagues came to me and they maybe engaged with gateway business.”
“If I need to do anything for them I assure you the ministry will follow the law in doing so,” she said.
Sahara assured she never did anything “merely at the requests of party leaders.”
Arifur Rahman, CEO of SM Communication Limited, said, “There are lots of problems in the sector and we sought their remedy from the minister.”
“We also requested that the call termination rate be brought down to $.015 per minute, something BTRC has already proposed,” he added.
In Bangladesh, there are 29 IGWs, companies that deal in international calls coming to the country. Of these, 23 have outstanding dues to BTRC, totalling around Tk5bn. Last week BTRC variously penalised 18 of them.
BTRC earlier sent a set of recommendations to the telecom ministry suggesting that the international call termination rate be brought down to $.015 from $.03 per minute. It suggested that the level of revenue sharing, 51.75% at present, should be reduced to 40%.
The recommendation acknowledged that the government would lose an estimated Tk10.731bn annually following the cut. It expressed the hope that by reducing their costs, the IGWs might be made sustainable and the number of illegal calls, some 15m minutes every day, might be reduced.
