The finance minister, AMA Muhith, has expressed hope that the 2G mobile licence renewal fee for four mobile phone operators - Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and CDMA operator Citycell - would be finalised within a month.
'We'll have the chance to finalise it in about a month,' he said after a delegation of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators Bangladesh called on him at his ministry. AMTOB president and Citycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury led the delegation.
Talking to the reporters after the meeting, Muhith said he told the delegation that they would have a further chance to talk to the ministry concerned before it is finalised.
Muhith informed that the finance ministry would also be able to forward their views on the issue within 15 days.
Asked whether the fee might be reduced, Muhith denied divulging the figure adding that he had told the delegation that the figure had been reduced but did not reveal how much it was reduced.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission earlier published a draft guideline concerning the renewal of the 2G mobile licences of four mobile operators as their current licences are due to expire at the end of November 2011.
Muhith said during the meeting, the mobile operators termed the proposed rate too high, as they have been asked to pay all the money upfront which is too much given the license is for 15 years. The experience in other countries is that it is staggered, although not over 15 years.
He said it was a very important matter because there was no other sector in the country which had around 70 million clients.
When asked whether the proposed licence fee is high, the finance minister declined making any comment.
He said the post and telecommunications ministry was earlier asked to look into the practices of other countries, and they had done that and modified the recommendations put forward by the BTRC.
He said some international practices were considered and some were overlooked while reviewing the proposals on renewal of licence fees.
The finance minister said the AMTOB delegation expressed their concern about leakage of some audit reports conducted by the BTRC which is tarnishing their reputation.
The delegation also thanked the finance minister for lowering the tax on SIM cards in the proposed budget for next fiscal, and requested treating SIM tax as their expenditure.
Grameenphone CEO Tore Johnsen, Banglalink CEO Ahmed Abou Doma and Robi's CEO Michael Kuehner were present.
source:NewAge
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