Readers respond

Here are some comments that came in response to Sunday's The Daily Star news report headlined “70pc revenue pilfered”

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Iftikhar-ul-Awwal
Wholesale plundering of state funds occurred in the state-run Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) is a shocking revelation. When national income tax collection is 1,700 crores a year, the BTCL officials gobble up nearly 2,800 crores annually. The criminals hiding among the BTCL staff have also managed to erase 70% call records.
We have got to recover the pilfered funds, smash the racketeers and ensure exemplary punishment to the culprits. In case the offenders fail to refund the stolen property, all their moveable and immoveable assets need to be confiscated applying the sternest measures as per our statute books. I am sure the entire nation is waiting with abated breath to see the response of the government.
M. K. Alam
It is horrible that the embezzlement of such big government funds was done with the blessings of the minister concerned.
Sengupta, Canada
Where are we living? One after another, our state-owned institutions are losing revenues and the powerful people are embezzling the money. Only investigations are not enough. Now is the time to bring them to justice.
Anonymous
Thanks to The Daily Star for the story. But you would be amazed to know that now there is a horiloot (plundering) going on in this sector in the name of IGW. A few of the new IGW started taking advantage of the 3 months credit facilities given by the BTRC and selling minutes in less than 1.5 cents a minute. Their target is to take the 3 months of credit plus another 3 months of extended credit facilities and take all the money in 6 months and go out of business. In this process, they will be able to draw more than 2,000 crore from the market whereas they had only a deposit of 15 crore to the BTRC.
Ironically, these new IGWs are the same people who acted as carriers in the BTCL and siphoned off the money. They just took the IGW license in different name and ownership.
MH Khan
I am a non-resident Bangladeshi. I make VOIP calls back home to my family. The idea is to save money and I use more than one operators. I found to my surprise that many of those operators use Bangladesh Fire Brigade exchange for call termination.