GP’s parent co sends legal notice to president over audit dispute

TELENOR Group, the parent company of Grameenphone, has sent a legal notice to president Abdul Hamid, seeking arbitration over a dispute concerning the Tk 12,579.95 crore in audit claim made by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to GP.

Telenor in its notice mentioned that they would go to international court unless the audit issue was solved through arbitration, posts and telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar told reporters at the secretariat in Dhaka on Thursday.

‘The legal notice was sent by a lawyer in Singapore on behalf of Telenor Group to our president for resolving the issue through arbitration,’ Jabbar said.

‘It is very much unfortunate that a company operating business in Bangladesh presses us for arbitration by sending notice to the president,’ he said, adding that such move was not acceptable.

There can be different problems in operating business and the government’s job is to facilitate them in resolving the issues, he said.

‘We have talked with the lawyers about the legal notice and there is nothing to be worried about,’ the telecom minister said, adding that the operator had already taken the issue to court and that was why the government had no scope for going for arbitration except following the legal process.

‘We will go for arbitration if the country’s court orders us to do so,’ he said.

No company would be able to secure justice if it violates rules and regulations of a country where it operates, Jabbar said.

‘We are bound to follow order of our court and based on that the government is on the right track,’ he said.

A Telenor Group statement issued by its group communication Asia director Cathrine Stang Lund said, ‘GP is not a party to this process.’

‘For Telenor Group it is important to protect its assets in Bangladesh,’ it said, adding, ‘Telenor has sent a notice to seek resolution of a dispute and invited the government of Bangladesh to meet to discuss the matter and work towards a constructive solution.’

‘The BIT (Bilateral Investment Treaty) process itself encourages dialogue, and Telenor still believes the best way forward is that the authorities and the operators agree on an amicable and transparent solution to the disputed audit,’ the statement said.

In reply to a question, Jabbar said that the government’s top brass along with the foreign ministry was aware about the issue.

He also informed that Robi had already approached him about withdrawing the cases it had lodged with courts and for solving the Tk 867.23 crore in audit claim to the mobile operator through discussion.

In reply to a question whether there is any scope for resolving the audit claims with the two operators through discussions, the telecom minister said that there was no scope for discussion for solving the issue with GP through discussion for now as the audit claim to GP was facing lawsuit but the issue with Robi could be solved if Robi withdrew the cases it filed in this connection.

The telecom minister criticised GP for poor service quality, saying that it had been serving the highest number of customers with the least volume of spectrum per customer.

Jabbar said that he had received proposals from different companies of Japan, Korea, China, the UAE, KSA and Russia over investment in the country’s telecom sector.

The companies are eager to provide the fifth generation (5G) telecom service and to make investments in the country’s lone state-owned telecom operator Teletalk, he said.

He also said that a Tk 3,200 crore investment proposal was under process, which would allow the operator to expand its network coverage to 80 per cent of the country’s territory from existing 32 per cent.

The minister also informed that he had been pressing the National Board of Revenue to waive the SIM-tax on the mobile number portability service to make the service popular.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net