Spectrum auction deferred by 3 weeks amid telcos’ boycott threat.

The country’s telecom regulator on Sunday deferred the April 30 auction of remaining 2G, 3G spectrum to May 20 as the mobile phone companies continue to put pressure on the government to resolve Tk 3,000 crore SIM replacement tax before the auction. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in a notice on the day said the new time for submitting application for the auction would be April 16 instead of pervious March 29. The government is set to hold the auction of remaining spectrums of 1800MHz for 2G service and 2100MHz for 3G service where the government could earn $648 million if all the spectrum blocks are sold at the base prices. According to BTRC officials, the mobile phone operators have recently taken a stand to boycott the auction if the SIM replacement tax issue remains unresolved by then. ‘It was the operators who demanded this auction of 1800MHz and 2100MHz whereas the government was planning for 700MHz auction this year. Now they have turned their back,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Sunday.

He said the operators had intentionally created a situation after announcement of the auction schedule to get benefit out of it. ‘They could have taken this auction boycott stand before we announced the schedule. If they had such a big issue in their mind, then why they requested for holding the 1800 and 2100 band auction. Now we are in an embarrassing situation,’ he said. Another BTRC official said the telecom regulator was caught in a tough position because of the auction-related situation. ‘We are authorised to call the auction but we have no power to resolve the tax issue. Only the government can take such a decision along with the National Board of Revenue. Now if the operators tag tax issue with the auction, then we can hardly help them,’ he said. The official said the mobile operators took a similar stand before the 3G spectrum auction held in September 2013 but finally took part in the auction after the government had assured them of resolving the issue.

‘The problem is that when the operators say they want this issue to be resolved, then they only mean a decision in their favour. Otherwise, the matter has been resolved and they are supposed to the pay the tax,’ he said. Earlier On March 1, Grameenphone’s parent company Telenor, Robi’s Axiata, Banglalink’s Vimpelcom and Airtel’s Bharti Airtel in a letter to finance minister Abul Maal Abul Muhith expressed their inability to invest for the auction if the government did not take concrete steps immediately to address the tax issues. Muhith, however, in November last year suggested that the National Board of Revenue reduce the SIM replacement tax by around Tk 1,000 crore from the revised claim of Tk 3,010.99 crore which the NBR has been demanding since 2012. According to the NBR final report, Grameenphone was supposed to pay Tk 1,562.29 crore, Banglalink Tk 762.34 crore, Robi Tk 647.24 crore and Airtel Tk 38.79 crore to the NBR as SIM replacement tax.

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