Economic Reporter :
To thwart the sale of illegally imported mobile phone sets, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has recently launched a drive against the illegal importers and traders across the country.
Following a directive of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the drive got under way from Wednesday last.
“BTRC officials and law enforcers are visiting mobile phone selling points across the capital,” State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim told The New Nation.
She claimed that one-third of the handsets sold in the market were either fake or had been illegally imported.
The practice hampers the business, she said.
Soon the drive would reach out beyond Dhaka, added the state minister.
A team led by RAB’s executive magistrate clamped a fine of Tk 700,000 on a few businessmen in Motalib Plaza, a shopping centre in Hatirpool.
One was handed down a six-month jail term during the drive, BTRC acting Chairman Ahsan Habib Khan said. According to the Import Policy Order 2012-15 and Bangladesh Telecommunication Control Act, 2001, any kind of wireless device (e.g. mobile phone, tablet PC, walkie talkie, base repeater, fixed wireless phone, modem, DTH receiver and antenna, satellite TV receiver) must be imported with the permission of the BTRC.
To thwart the sale of illegally imported mobile phone sets, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has recently launched a drive against the illegal importers and traders across the country.
Following a directive of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the drive got under way from Wednesday last.
“BTRC officials and law enforcers are visiting mobile phone selling points across the capital,” State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim told The New Nation.
She claimed that one-third of the handsets sold in the market were either fake or had been illegally imported.
The practice hampers the business, she said.
Soon the drive would reach out beyond Dhaka, added the state minister.
A team led by RAB’s executive magistrate clamped a fine of Tk 700,000 on a few businessmen in Motalib Plaza, a shopping centre in Hatirpool.
One was handed down a six-month jail term during the drive, BTRC acting Chairman Ahsan Habib Khan said. According to the Import Policy Order 2012-15 and Bangladesh Telecommunication Control Act, 2001, any kind of wireless device (e.g. mobile phone, tablet PC, walkie talkie, base repeater, fixed wireless phone, modem, DTH receiver and antenna, satellite TV receiver) must be imported with the permission of the BTRC.
