Govt announces over 70% cut in IGW license renewal fees

The government has fixed the license renewal charge of IGW (International Gateway) operators at Tk1 crore, reducing it by more than 70 per cent.

The finance ministry on Wednesday fixed the fees, while the operators were demanding more reduction as their income fell drastically due to the shortage of international calls.

The IGW operators used to pay Tk 3.75 crore for the license renewal each year.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) wants to implement the new fees from 2020. But the ministry's finance division did not mention the exact time for implementing the decision.

In November, the IGW Operators Forum applied to the BTRC seeking reduction of license renewal fees and fixing it at Tk 50 lakh. They also sought its implementation from 2020 as number of voice calls slipped significantly due to different Over-the-top (OTT) apps.

BTRC sent the application to the Finance Division and Department of Posts and Telecommunications on November 22.

The Department of Posts and Telecommunications sent a letter to the Finance Division on 8 May, seeking the latter's opinion over effecting the decision from last year. The letter signed by Masuma Nasrin, Deputy Secretary of Department of Posts and Telecommunications was addressed to Abdur Rauf Talukdar, the Senior Secretary of Finance Division.

Bangladesh currently has 24 IGW operators.

BTRC also took measures to amend the current policy which prohibited international investment in the IGW international gateway and international call termination sector.