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The government is owed a total of Tk13,344 crore from four mobile phone operators in unpaid revenues, with Grameenphone holding the largest outstanding amount followed by state-owned Teletalk Bangladesh Limited, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Fakir Mahbub Anam disclosed the information in response to a question from Cox’s Bazar-3 lawmaker Lutfor Rahman during the question-answer session of the Jatiya Sangsad.
The minister said the outstanding dues accumulated from various sources, including licence fees, revenue sharing, spectrum fees, administrative penalties, social obligation fund contributions and claims arising from audit objections.
According to government data, Grameenphone has the highest outstanding payment among private operators, amounting to Tk6,102 crore. The claim includes issues related to information system audit objections and VAT-related demands, which are currently under consideration by the High Court.
Teletalk Bangladesh Limited owes Tk5,954 crore to the government, mainly due to pending payments related to licence fees, revenue sharing and spectrum charges. The recovery process has remained unresolved for a long time.
Among the remaining operators, Robi Axiata Limited owes Tk615 crore, including claims related to audit objections and revenue-sharing issues. The matter is also pending in court.
Banglalink Digital Communications Limited has outstanding dues of Tk473 crore, which mainly stem from audit objections and revenue-sharing claims.
The minister said the process of collecting the dues has been delayed as several disputes involving the mobile operators are currently under legal proceedings.
He added that unresolved issues related to audit objections and revenue-sharing disputes are among the key reasons behind the government’s inability to recover the significant amount of pending revenue.
TZ
