Agents want 16-fold rise in payment for SIM re-registration
Bangladesh Tele-Recharge and Mobile Banking Business Association yesterday demanded raising the payment for re-registration of each SIM more than 16 times to Tk 30.
The members of the association and others are responsible for re-registration of mobile connections.
The association made the call from a media briefing at Dhaka Reporters Unity.
An agent can re-register 35 SIMs a day, as it takes about 15 minutes to complete the re-registration of a SIM, said Shahajan Mia, secretary general of the association.
“For 35 SIMs, an agent will get Tk 63 at the rate of Tk 1.8, which is very low considering the current economic situation.”
“In 2008, the agents received Tk 25 for re-registering every single SIM, but they are being paid at the rate of Tk 1.8 now although the process has become more sensitive thanks to the introduction of biometric system.”
The association also demanded commission for each Tk 1,000 recharge to be raised to Tk 100 from the existing Tk 27.5 and commission for mobile banking agents to be raised to Tk 6 from Tk 4.2 for every Tk 1,000 transacted.
The association urged the government, Bangladesh Telecom-munication Regulatory Commission and telecom operators to meet their demands in seven days.
“Tough action will be taken if the demands are not met in time,” said Nurul Huda, president of the association.
“We need a policy for the top-up and mobile banking agents that must be complied with,” said Rafiqul Islam, joint secretary of the association.
Only registered vendors should be allowed to run the mobile top-up business, he said.
As of the first week of April, only 5.45 crore out of 13.11 active SIMs were re-registered while the deadline to complete the process is April 30.
The leaders of the association said it will be a tough job to re-register all SIMs by the time.
About Tk 500 crore is transacted a day through mobile banking while the top-up service handles around Tk 80 crore, they said.
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