Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) has failed to realise dues worth around Tk 316 crore from different companies and falsely recorded it as "current asset" in its financial statement. 

Of the long pending dues, Tk 79.64 crore is owed by Teletalk, Tk 50 crore by Bangladesh Cable Shilpa, Tk 12.81 crore by various government entities and by Tk 174 crore different shuttered companies.

Moreover, the BTCL has not taken any "realistic" or legal step to realise the dues.

The revelation came in a 2023 audit report of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the BTCL's financial statements of fiscal year 2019-20 and 2020-21.

The BTCL, whose main offering of landline telephone has fallen out of favour with the advent of mobile phones, provides a host of telecom services to stay alive by obtaining licences from BTRC, the regulator.

In response to the CAG's query, the BTCL had responded that its dues had been left unaccounted for since July 2008, when it was formed as a public limited company from a previous Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board.

The BTCL's consultant, Hoda Vasi Chowdhury and CO, is working on compiling the dues, it added.

Earlier in 2022, another audit report of the CAG found that the state coffer is at least Tk 2,258.76 crore short, owing to the BTCL's failure to deposit the sum for mismanagement.

The BTCL, whose main offering of landline telephone has fallen out of favour with the advent of mobile phones, provides a host of telecom services to stay alive by obtaining licences from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, the regulator.

And as per licensing terms, the state-run company has to share a portion of the revenue earned from the services with the BTRC, which then deposits the sum to the state coffer.

Once a hugely profitable enterprise, the BTCL has been racking up losses since fiscal year 2009-10, save for fiscal years 2012-13, 2021-22, 2022-23 when it turned in profits of Tk 5 crore, Tk 6.7 crore and Tk 14 crore respectively.

It last logged in a proper profit back in fiscal year 2009-10: Tk 106.1 crore.

With the view of giving relevance to the dated company, the government has been sanctioning one project after another for it worth thousands of crores of taka.

It has ongoing projects worth about Tk 3,152 crore, including a Tk 945 crore project for "BTCL Internet Protocol (IP) Network Development and Expansion" and a Tk 1,059 crore project for "Development of 5G-compliant Optical Fibre Transmission Network".

Since 2009, it has implemented several projects involving about around Tk 5,200 crore.

The BTCL did not respond to The Daily Star's request for comment as of yesterday.