Citycell seeks more time to pay dues

Citycell sought time until December 31 to clear its outstanding charges as the telecom regulator has decided to cancel its spectrum for the failure to pay Tk 477.51 crore in dues despite several reminders.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in a public notice on Sunday also asked Citycell subscribers to switch to any other operator by August 16.

The oldest mobile phone operator of the country applied for additional time on Monday but BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood told The Daily Star that a time extension is unlikely.

"Citycell came up with the same kind of request eleven times in the past, and every time we considered their appeal, but they didn't pay the dues," he said.

Mahmood, however, said they will put forward the Citycell plea to the telecom ministry and a final decision will be taken there.

"The decision to shut down Citycell's operations came from the government. We had only informed the government of Citycell's dues and the government directed us to cancel its licences and close operations," he said.

The dues include spectrum renewal fee at Tk 229 crore, annual licence fee Tk 10 crore, annual spectrum fee Tk 27.14 crore, VAT Tk 39.92 crore and late fee at Tk 135 crore, according to the notice.

Mehboob Chowdhury, chief executive officer of Citycell, in the letter to BTRC, said: "It has been an extremely difficult task to bring new investment in Bangladesh and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (the owning company of Citycell) in particular."

He said they were trying to bring a US operator to Bangladesh and a discussion is ongoing.

BTRC in April filed a case against the operator to realise the dues.

Citycell started its operations in 1993, though its licence was awarded in 1989.

Singapore's SingTel owns 44.54 percent shares in Citycell, Pacific Motors 37.95 percent and Far East Telecom 17.51 percent.

Shareholders had been trying for the last few years to sell the licence of the operator but did not find any interested party.