Speaking to the official news agency of Bangladesh BSS, the Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said on Thursday that govt has approved the recommendation of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission (BTRC) to appoint administrators for Grammenphone (GP) and Robi for recovery of Tk 13,446 crore owed by these companies to the government.
The BTRC conducted two audits in 2016 to calculate the outstanding revenues of the operators.
Based on the audit report BTRC claims that GP owes it Taka 12,579 crore while Robi owes Taka 867.24 crore.
The dues include amounts accruing on account of dodging of revenue share, taxes and late fees accumulated until December 2014.
Earlier in September BTRC had issued a show-cause notice to the two companies for recovery of the dues giving 30 day deadline failing which their licenses were to be cancelled.
According to the BTRC, GP has 7.48 crore active connections while Robi has 4.77 crore connections accounting for close to 75 percent of all the mobile connections in Bangladesh.
In the meanwhile, on Thursday High Court in Dhaka issued an interim stay on the realisation of Tk 12,579.95 crore from GP by BTRC for two months.