International calls are decreasing, rising government loss

International rates of international calls coming from foreign countries are now at the lowest level. Currently the number of international calls in the country has been below 6 million minutes daily. But two years ago, there were 10 million to 11 million minutes of calls every day. That means the number of international calls reduced by almost 50 percent in two years.

Telecommunication sector-related people say, the number of calls to bring international calls due to lack of transparency is decreasing day by day. In this case, the government's income from the sector has been decreasing. The International Gateway (IGW) operators bring a call at 1 rupee 60 paisa, but the government is paying the income to 1 rupee 20 paise. In the last two years, revenue loss of the government has already crossed Tk 2 trillion, without deciding to share the call rate and income. The recommendations of the Prime Minister to reduce financial losses, recommendations of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) are not implemented.
BTRC had made some specific proposals in April last eight months before raising government revenue from international calls. One of these proposals was to increase the share of government revenue from 40 percent to 43 percent from international call business. Another suggestion was to reduce the maximum cost of bringing calls from abroad from Tk. 80 paise to 1 rupee 28 paise. Again, the rate at which the call will come, the recommendation was to share the revenue with the government and other parties. Although these decisions were made in consultation with all stakeholders including IGW, none of this has been implemented yet.
BTRC formed a 13-member committee to create these recommendations. In addition to the BTRC, representatives of Postal and Telecommunication Department, Ministry of Finance and National Board of Revenue (NBR) were also kept in this committee. According to the BTRC sources, instead of implementing the recommendations of the previous committee, it has now decided to negotiate with all parties.
When asked, BTRC chairman Shahjahan Mahmud told the first light, the BTRC took an initiative to find out the specific reasons for reducing international calls. Action will be taken according to the results obtained in the study.
According to the rules, 40 per cent of BTRC, 17.5 per cent ICX, 22.5 per cent mobile operator and the remaining 20 per cent of IGW companies are earning every one minute call from abroad. The sector-related people say that since the June 24, 2015, the number of calls has declined since IOF (IGW Operator Forum) has been under the control of a private business group named after the international call business. After three months of formation of IOF, the call rate was increased from 1 rupee 20 paise to Tk. 60 paise. If the call rate increases, only 40 paisa is being earned, only IGW operators. There is a complaint that due to an influential party involved with IOF, the government can not take any decision on call rates and sharing of income.
Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) TIM Nurul Kabir said that there is a lack of supervision and transparency in governing the international call business. It is necessary to ensure that no group can take advantage of the scope of weaknesses.