BANGLADESH

Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has asked nation's leading telecom operator Grameenphone to pay Tk 30.34 billion dues.

The amount includes Tk 21.46 billion of BTRC fees and Tk 8.87-billion revenue for the National Board of Revenues (NBR), a BTRC letter sent to the company said on Monday.

BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed told  a Commission audit had found that the company had left the amount unpaid.

It asked the telecom operator to pay the BTRC amount within 21 days of the notice and that of the NBR in 'due time'.

Grameenphone officials indicated they would dispute the claim. A spokesman said the company would respond to the letter in a few days.

"It's not that we have been asked to pay a penalty," chief communications officer Kazi Monirul Kabir told .
"There are a lot of financial transactions between BTRC and the mobile operators including sharing revenues from international outgoing calls.

"The letter deals with those issues and seeks to clarify some points," Kabir said.

"The telecom sector has a lot of technical issues. The audit firm may not have understood many of them," Kabir said.