Staff Reporter :
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Citycell to pay an amount of Tk 128 crore, the remainder of its fees, to telecom regulator in revenue sharing bid, spectrum charges, late fees and fine.
A four-member bench of Appellate division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after dismissing Citycell’s plea seeking modification of its earlier order which had mandated the mobile operator to pay Tk 372 crore.
The apex court said, Citycell will have to pay the money as per recommendation of an expert committee headed by Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury.
Barrister Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib said that the Supreme Court in November 2016 formed the committee for assessing the relevant fees of Citycel payable to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
The committee submitted a report to the Appellate division in June last year. In the report, the committee asked the Citycell to pay Tk 372 crore to BTRC as its revenue sharing fees, spectrum charge, late fee and fine.
Citycell has already paid Tk 244 crore as per the recommendation, Barrister Raquib said. It recently filed a petition with the apex court seeking its directives so that it is exempted from paying the remaining Tk 128 crore to the BTRC.
On November 3, 2016, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court formed a special committee headed by Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury, Vice-Chancellor of University of Asia Pacific, to settle the dispute between BTRC and Citycell over its due payment within 30 days.
The SC also fixed Tk five lakh as honorium for the committee chief, while Tk 2.5 lakh each for the other members of the committee and asked both the Citycell and the BTRC to bear the honorium.
