The telecom regulator yesterday issued show cause notices to mobile phone operators Grameenphone, and Robi seeking explanations as to why their licences would not be cancelled on the face of their failure to pay Tk13,446 crore audit claims.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission issued separate notices to the carriers under Section 46(2) of the Telecommunication Act, 2001.
The operators have been given 30 days time for their explanations, BTRC Senior Assistant Director Zakir Hossain Khan confirmed.
BTRC officials said, the notice detailed the government’s steps taken so far to recover the audit claims since 2011.
The notices mentioned that necessary approvals were obtained from the highest authority of the government for the issuance of the show cause notices.
After running an audit on the two mobile phone operators, the BTRC in 2016 claimed Tk12,579.95 crore from Grameenphone, leader in the country’s telecom service sector, and Tk867.23 crore from Robi, the second largest operator, in taxes and late fees accumulated over several years.
Asked, GP in a statement said: “This notice is unjustified, and yet another step by the regulator to refuse our invitation to seek an amicable solution related to a disputed audit claim.”
“Grameenphone will assess the notice before considering its response,’ says the statement.
“We will take necessary measures to protect the rights of the company, our shareholders, and customers against unwarranted actions by the regulator,” it adds.
Robi, in response to the show cause notice, said they would send their reply in due time.
“Issuing show-cause notice over license cancellation will create an adverse reaction among the investors and uncertainty will be loomed among subscribers. We will send reply of the notice in due course,” Shahed Alam, Robi’s chief corporate and regulatory officer, said in a statement.
The BTRC ran its first audit back in 2011 on GP, and found financial discrepancies amounting to Tk3,034 crore in the operator's books from its inception in 1996 through to March 2011.
Grameenphone then disputed the appointment process of the auditing firm, and after a court ruling the BTRC in October 2015 appointed another firm, Toha Khan Zaman & Co, to run a new audit on GP’s books from its inception until June 2015.
GP officials claimed that the methodology in the particular issue of the BTRC were questionable.
“For example, spectrum usage charges between 2002 and 2006 were paid based on demand notes claimed by the BTRC. However, in the BTRC audit, it was assessed that the demand notes were incorrectly calculated. Now the regulator wants us to pay the additional amount for the mentioned period,” Hossain Sadat, acting chief, corporate affairs officer, GP, told reporters at a press briefing in late July.
As far as the case of Robi is concerned, the BTRC in 2016 appointed Masih Muhith Haque & Co to run an audit into the country's second largest operator Robi from its inception in 1997 through to December 2015.
The auditors had placed a claim of Tk1,251.68 crore against Robi, but the operator disputed the amount, and after a series of tripartite meetings the claim was lowered by about 45% to Tk867.24 crore.
On July 4, the BTRC slashed Grameenphone’s bandwidth by 30% and Robi’s by 15% for failing to clear the payment of the dues.
The regulator, however, lifted the bandwidth block on July 17 considering the inconvenience it was causing the subscribers.
On July 22, the BTRC decided not to give any kind of approval to the two mobile phone operators to roll out new packages or services, or import network equipment to pressure them into clearing their dues.
