Two private sector telephone companies (PSTN or public switched telephone companies) were running illegal VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) businesses. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) caught these during investigations. Their licences were cancelled. They were supposed to be fined Tk 5 billion, but BTRC only got Tk 300 thousand from one of the organisations. In other words, the government incurred a loss of about Tk 10 billion.
These irregularities were uncovered during audit by the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). BTRC says that they took the fine in accordance to the 2001 act, not the act of 2008. Yet in the case of Grameen Phone, they did not do so. In that instance they enforced the 2008 law.
It is only natural to ask why the same crime will have two different penalties. If BTRC displays a soft stance towards certain companies, they will simply encourage such crime. And that is exactly what is happening. VoIP business is continuing unabated. BTRC hardly gets the report of most of the incoming and outgoing international phone calls.
Over the past 10 years there have been about 6000 cases against illegal VoIP businesses. Only 20 of these cases were disposed of, that too during the 1/11 caretaker government. BTRC needs to take special initiative for speedy settlement of the cases.
The government has lost about one billion taka due to the soft stand adopted by BTRC in these two instances. Who will take responsibility? It should be examined why BRTC used the old laws to extract fines from these companies. The matter is going to the parliamentary standing committee. We hope that now the proper fines will be imposed on the two accused companies.