Citycell gets another lease of life
The Supreme Court yesterday instructed the telecom regulator to return Citycell's spectrum in yet another twist to the operator's scrap for survival.
The apex court ordered the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission to give back Citycell's spectrum within 24 hours and also revoke its decision to cancel the operator's licence.
The development comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also heads the posts, telecommunications and information technology ministry, last week gave the green light to cancellation of Citycell's licence over non-payment of fees and charges.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order after hearing a contempt of court petition filed by Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited, Citycell's parent company, against the telecom regulator.
PBTL's lawyer Ahsanul Karim told The Daily Star that the SC on November 3 last year ordered the BTRC to reinstate Citycell's spectrum and let it continue operations -- conditional upon payment of Tk 100 crore by November 19 last year.
The down-and-out operator had furnished the sum two days before the deadline, according to Karim.
But the BTRC on April 26 issued a notice to Citycell about disconnecting its frequency. And on June 11, the spectrum allocation was cancelled.
"This amounts to contempt of court," Karim said.
PBTL recently filed the contempt of court petition with the SC against the BTRC chairman and the director of spectrum division on charges of committing contempt of court.
In the petition PBTL sought for return of Citycell's spectrum, he added.
In October last year, the BTRC shut down Citycell's networking switch over dues of Tk 377 crore pertaining to spectrum and licence fees, revenue sharing and late penalty.
The operator then paid Tk 230.19 crore to the BTRC along with Tk 14 crore as tax to the National Board of Revenue, according to documents.
It, however, went on to dispute the amount claimed by the BTRC, prompting the court to form a three-member committee to work out the exact sum outstanding.
In the meantime, the court asked Citycell to continue to clear its remaining dues to the BTRC.
But Citycell did not make any payments between October last year and March this year, meaning it violated the court's order as well, according to BTRC officials.
The Section 46 of the Telecommu-nication Act allows the BTRC to cancel the licence of any entity for non-payment of dues. In June, the BTRC made its recommendation to cancel Citycell's licence.
Meanwhile, Citycell is of the belief it has made Tk 129.27 crore of overpayment to the BTRC.
The operator has paid Tk 476.27 crore as spectrum charge, licence fee, revenue sharing and social obligation fund to the telecom regulator, PBTL said.
Its dues until October last year was Tk 346.99 crore, meaning that an additional Tk 129.27 crore has already been furnished to the telecom regulator.
So the dues incurred since October 2016 should be adjusted against the additional Tk 129.27 crore paid by PBTL, it added.
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