The Appellate Division has ordered leading mobile operator Grameenphone to pay Tk 20 billion to the telecom regulator within three month as part of its disputed audit claims.
A bench led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain gave the order on Sunday (Nov 24), BTRC counsel Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib confirmed.
The court, however, has kept the freeze on Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) notice asking for Tk 125 billion in dues.
It said that failure to comply with the court’s order within three months will lead to the freeze being lifted.
On November 17, the Supreme Court asked Grameenphone not to go for any arbitration or outside court settlement with the government over telecom regulator’s Tk 125 billion audit claim.
In 2016, BTRC claimed Tk125 billion from the mobile phone operator in taxes and late fees accumulated over the years after running an audit on the Norway-based company.
BTRC ran its first audit back in 2011 on Grameenphone and found financial discrepancies amounting to Tk 30 billion in the operator's books from its inception in 1996 till March 2011.
Grameenphone then disputed the appointment process of the auditing firm, and after a court ruling BTRC in October 2015 appointed another firm, Toha Khan Zaman & Co, to run a new audit on Grameenphone’s books from its inception until June 2015.
GP officials claimed that the methodology in the particular issue of BTRC was questionable.
On Apr 2 this year the BTRC wrote to Grameenphone asking to clear dues worth Tk 125 billion.
The mobile operator filed a case seeking a stay on paying the amount but on Aug 28, the court rejected their plea.
Following the rejection GP moved the HC after which the BTRC letter was stayed. The telecom regulator them moved the Appellate Division.
Earlier in July the BTRC slashed GP’s bandwidth temporarily by 30% and on July 22 the telecom regulator decided not to give any types of approval to the operator to roll out new packages or services, or import network equipment to pressure it into clearing their dues.
