No initiative of the government is becoming effective to tackle the anarchic situation in the field of incoming international telephone calls, including VoIP black-marketing.

In this regard, the result of issuing large-scale international gateway (IGW) and VoIP service provider (VSP) by changing the 2007 ILDTS and introducing new policy in 2010 is also disappointing.

The IGW operators are making reckless efforts to evade paying government revenue by using political influence and, as of last month, they owed Tk 1,221 crore to the BTRC on this account.

On the other hand, most of about 1,000 persons and establishments who obtained VSP licences could not launch this service.

Many of them are sitting idle in despair and those who are reluctant to accept the loss are seeking ways for redress.

In the opinion of the BTRC officials concerned and country’s telecom experts the situation has been created due to the wrong policy of the government.

Various forms of corruption and black-marketing over international calls are not being stopped as the gateway licences were issued on a large scale and political considerations.

Actions against the offenders cannot be taken at appropriate time due to their political influence.

According to information gathered from BTRC, an amount of Tk 1,221.24 crore remained unpaid by international gateway or IGWs to the BTRC during October 2012 to January 26, 2014. The activities of 10 of the 29 IGWs have been stopped by BTRC due to non-payment of dues for long. Of these, Cell Telecom Ltd owes Tk 14.14 crore to BTRC, First Communication Ltd Tk 26.86 crore, SM Communications Tk 29.18 crore, Mass Five Tel Ltd Tk 30.18 crore, Apple Network Ltd Tk 51.22 crore, Base Take Telecom Ltd Tk 115.39 crore, K Telecommunication Ltd Tk 85.78 crore, Vision Tel Ltd Tk 138.76 crore, Ratul Telecom Tk 89.2 crore and Telex Ltd Tk 87.78 crore.

According to the policy of IGW, the country earns some three cents per minute through incoming call from abroad. Some 51.75percent of 3 cents is to be paid to the government as per the contract of revenue sharing. Out of rest 48.25percent, telephone operator gets 20 percent, inter connection exchange gets 15 percent and IGWB gets 13.25percent.

In addition, Tk 7.5 crore is to be given to the IGW institutions in terms of renewal fees every year. Despite having repeated call by the BTRC, these IGW operators did not pay the annual license fees and VAT. Now, the amount of dues till January 26 has been estimated at Tk 142.50 crore.

According to BTRC, among the rest of 19 IGW operators, Banglatruck did not pay Tk 14.4 crore, Mirtel Tk12.14crore, Novotel Tk10.36 crore, BTCL Tk 291.44crore, Global Voice Telecom Tk2.97crore and Banglatel Tk18.77crore. Many of them, however, did not pay the annual license fees and VAT.

At its 163rd meeting on January 2, vice chairman Md Giasuddin Ahmed said Tk113.62 crore and Tk 28.87crore are now dues respectively in terms of license fees and VAT from IGW operators.

Regarding this issue, Commissioner Md Abdus Samad said, “Preparation is going on to take legal action under public demand recovery (PDR) act and CrPC against the operators those who have failed to pay the dues of the government and are adopting unfair means.

But concerned officials of BTRC said it has become very tough to take legal action or realise the dues as IGW operators are engaged in changing their ownerships.

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