The government has lost more than $51.44m in the last five months alone following a decision to halve the international incoming call termination rate and rearrange a revenue sharing structure.
However, despite the massive losses, the telecom regulator – which earlier lobbied for the reduced rates – is now again recommending that the slashed termination rate stays in effect for six more months.
When the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission asked the government last year to cut the call termination rate from US 3 cents to 1.5 cents per minute, the BTRC also assured that the move will increase the call volume and bring in an extra Tk200 crore in profits.
But the reality turned out to be a stark contrast to their proposal, as the six-month-long temporary arrangement caused $51.44m in losses to the BTRC since September 18 last year.
According to the proposal, the government share in international call termination earnings was also cut down from 51.75% to 40%, meaning the government received 40% of 1.5 cents per minute.
The revised revenue sharing structure resulted in only the IGW operators profiting from the change; while the burden of losses fell on the BTRC along with other mobile and land-phone operators and ICX operators.
However, with the temporary arrangement set to expire on Tuesday, March 17, the BTRC has asked for the arrangement to be extended. A letter on this regard, signed by BTRC system and service wing Director Lt Col Mohammad Zulfikar, was sent to the government on Thursday.
BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose said six months was a very short time to find out the outcome of this issue.
“Every day incoming calls are increasing and we think that if we get some time, the government’s earnings will increase and we can make up the losses,” he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Asked about the BTRC letter, Md Feroz Salah Uddin, additional secretary of the Telecommunication Division, told the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday that they would go through the BTRC proposal before sending it for the Finance Ministry’s approval.
However, sources inside the BTRC said there was disagreement within the telecom regulator about the purpose of the fresh recommendation.
“After a huge loss of public money, the BTRC is once again going for it; which means they are doing it in favour of losing hundreds crores of taka of public money,” a senior BTRC officer told the Dhaka Tribune on condition of anonymity.
Mobile operators also expressed their concerns about six more months of reduced rates, saying they were losing large amounts of money for the changes introduced last September.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) sent a letter to the BTRC yesterday saying: “We would also request the commission to organise a consultation meeting before revising the international incoming call termination rate and revenue sharing model.”
According to BTRC data, since the slashing of rates in last September, the volume of calls has increased but revenue collection has decreased.
Between September 18 and the end of February this year, the International Gateways (IGW) carried 13,616 million call minutes, a big rise from the 8,576 million minutes during the previous five month period of April to September 17 last year.
The previous 51.75% revenue sharing structure and 3 cent price meant the BTRC received $133.14m during last year’s April-September period, while the Inter Connection Exchanges (ICX) and the call receivers operators (ANS) also received greater shares of profits.
But the reduced price and 40% revenue share allowed the BTRC to collect only $81.69m during September-February period, while the ICX and ANS also suffered losses, and only the IGW profited $6.75m.
