SC order on reinstating Citycell’s spectrum Thursday

The Supreme Court today fixed Thursday for passing an order on a petition filed by mobile operator Citycell seeking directives on the government to reinstate its spectrum allocation.

The four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha set the date after holding hearing on the petition.

Citycell filed the petition on October 24, five days after Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission suspended its spectrum allocation following the beleaguered operator's failure to pay the full amount of its dues on time.

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The dues include the spectrum renewal fee at Tk 229 crore, annual licence fee of Tk 10 crore, annual spectrum fee of Tk 27.14 crore, VAT Tk 39.92 crore and late fees of Tk 135 crore, according to a BTRC notice.

The operator owes the BTRC Tk 477.69 crore, and in September the apex court ordered Citycell to pay two-thirds of the amount, Tk 318.42 crore, by October 19. The operator managed to pay Tk 130 crore.

In the petition, the mobile operator claimed that it paid Tk 130 crore to BTRC and Tk 14 crore to the National Board of Revenue in instalments.

The petition was moved before Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, the chamber judge of the Appellate Division. After a brief hearing on October 25, the chamber judge of the apex court sent the petition to its full bench and fixed October 31 (today) for the hearing.

Earlier on July 31, the regulator asked Citycell customers to switch to other operators by August 16, as it had decided to suspend its operations.