Four leading IGWs owe regulator over Tk 300cr
The telecom regulator is struggling to collect dues worth more than Tk 300 crore from four out of the seven IGW operators who are the leaders of a two-tier clearing exchange that will control all international calls.
The international gateway operators—Global Voice Telecom Ltd, Roots Communication Ltd, Unique Infoway Ltd and Digicon Telecommunication Ltd—owe Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Tk 303.78 crore.
The amount is a portion of their revenue to be shared with the government -- for three months till February. The last date to pay the dues was April 16.
The four operators belong to the superior group in a new structure—IGW Operators Switch (IOS)—that the BTRC plans to introduce next month to handle international calls and collect revenue from other operators.
According to the format, the superior group in tier 2 will transmit international incoming calls -- received from the operators in tier 1 -- to the telecom operators through interconnection exchanges.
The regulator has not yet changed its previous stance that it will not allow the launch of the IOS until the IGWs clear the dues, a commissioner of the BTRC said, asking not to be named.
“But it is tough to collect the dues.”
He said they will place the issue in the next commission meeting and take the next course of action as per the direction of the BTRC chairman.
BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose and officials from the media wing of the commission could not be reached despite several attempts.
The commissioner said the IGW Operators Forum sent a letter to the regulator yesterday, seeking to launch the IOS on June 1.
Bishwajit Saha, marketing manager of Digicon Telecommunication, said the company will clear its dues of Tk 79.12 crore by this month.
But the other three IGWs did not mention any date for the payment.
In a meeting at BTRC office yesterday, the operators' forum said they will not take any responsibility of the dues.
Now the BTRC plans to take undertakings from the IGWs about the dues and let the IOS start working, the commissioner said.
The country's 29 IGWs owe the telecom regulator more than Tk 1,720 crore in revenue sharing amounts, while state-owned operator Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd alone has dues worth Tk 549.18 crore.
The six IGWs that were blocked recently have dues of Tk 523.63 crore.
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