The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has decided to seek dues totalling Tk 87.18 lakh from Software Shop and impose a fine of Tk 2 lakh on the company for violating different rules. The telecom regulator has instructed its finance and accounting division to send a letter to the company demanding payment of the dues.

These dues stem from non-payment of revenue sharing and social obligation fund contributions.

The imposition of the Tk 2 lakh administrative fine on Software Shop was decided for various violations, including providing services with expired tariffs and failing to comply with commission directives.

Software Shop is a holder of the Telecommunication Value Added Services (TVAS) registration certificate issued by the BTRC.

The TVAS providers offer various services through mobile carriers under a revenue-sharing model. Customers are charged by mobile phone operators.

The services include welcome tunes, voice messages, news alerts, missed call alerts, call block, call forwarding or diverting, music, videos, mobile games, streaming services and balance transfers.

The decision of the commission comes against the backdrop of an inspection carried out on the office of the company by a team comprising officials of the BTRC's enforcement and inspection directorate.

The inspection team afterwards submitted a report to the commission.

According to BTRC documents, the company was providing its services with expired tariffs in a clear violation of the telecom law.

It also changed it address without informing the commission and did not provide "online monitoring terminal's user ID and password" -- which was in violation of the clauses of a TVAS guideline.

The company also violated the commission's instructions by providing services using expired shortcodes. The commission also directed its engineering and operations division to take legal action against Software Shop for using expired shortcode of 16444.

Software Shop was supposed to pay Tk 1.25 crore as a part of a 5.5 percent revenue sharing agreement and 1 percent social obligation contribution from October 2018 to September 2023 to the commission.

However, it only paid Tk 38.74 lakh to the commission, according to the documents.

Nurul Huda, chief external affairs officer of Software Shop, said they were holding negotiations with the BTRC over this matter.

Meanwhile, Software Shop should have received 40 percent of the revenue from mobile operator Robi Axiata but received 30 percent.

The commission has also decided to seek an explanation from Robi in this regard.