The High Court has issued an ad-interim injunction for two months against the realisation of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) audit claim of Tk 125.78 billion from the leading mobile operator Grameenphone (GP).
A HC bench of justices AKM Abdul Hakim and Fatima Nazib passed the order on Thursday and fixed Nov 5 for hearing the appeal filed by the operator.
Lawyers AM Aminuddin, Sharif Bhuiyan and Tanim Hussain stood for Grameenphone while Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib appeared stood for the telecom regulator.
On Aug 28, a Dhaka court rejected a Graameenphone application which the operator filed seeking directive so that BTRC does not realise the money.
After that, the operator moved the HC challenging the court’s rejection order.
Meanwhile, the Post and Telecommunication ministry has cleared the telecom regulatory to appoint administrators for Grameenphone and Robi to oversee the operation of the two mobile operators.
Back in 2016, the BTRC, after an audit of the two mobile phone operators, claimed Tk 125.7995 billion from GP, the leader in the country’s telecom service sector, and Tk 8.6723 billion from Robi, the second-largest operator, in taxes and late fees accumulated over several years.
Of the total, the principal audit claim from Robi was around Tk 3.15 billion, and around Tk 63.85 billion from Grameenphone.
On Sept 18, the finance minister in a meeting with the two mobile operators announced that the longstanding dispute about the audit claim would be resolved within three weeks.
Earlier in July the BTRC slashed GP’s bandwidth by 30 percent and Robi’s by 15 percent for failing to clear the payment of the dues.
But they lifted the block on bandwidth after two weeks considering the inconvenience it was causing the subscribers.
On Jul 22, the BTRC decided not to give any kind of approval to the two mobile phone operators to roll out new packages or services, or import network equipment to pressure them into clearing their dues.