Dhaka, Aug 18 – Citizens’ Rights Movement (CRM), an NGO working for people’s rights, on Saturday demanded fixation of mobile phone call rate at 10 paisha per minute with a per second pulse. The CRM raised the demand at a press conference held at the office of Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh (CRAB) of Segunbagicha in the city as the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) last week fixed Tk 0.45 per minute as the uniform minimum call rate for all mobile phone operators and the new rate has already given effect from the following midnight.
Addressing the Press Conference, CRM’s secretary general Tushar Ahmed also demanded reduction of VAT to 10 percent from 15 percent for calls as mobile subscribers are paying it to the government.
“The CRM thinks that a syndicate system has been prevailing in the country’s mobile phone sector. Thousands of people have become victims of the syndicate as they (people) will never be united to reject the syndicates,” the CRM secretary general said adding that members of the evil syndicates have been collecting illogical profit.
Tushar Ahmed alleged that the BTRC has been involved in inspiring mobile operators to get more profit bypassing the interests of subscribers.
He said mobile phone companies have smuggled out foreign currency worth more than Tk 5 lakh crore taka abroad from Bangladesh though they (mobile operators) claimed that they have already deposited several thousand crore Taka to the government’s treasury as Vat or tax.
The CRM general secretary demanded to publish while papers mentioning how much money were invested in the country by the private mobile phone operators in last two decades as well as how much foreign currency they (Mobile companies) smuggled out during the period.
He put forward a 11-point demand that included migration facility (mobile Operator changing) keeping same mobile number as well the number should be included in the NID card for the sake of mobile users as well as national security, fixing 10 GB internet price at Tk 100 to increase internet using facilities in education sector as well as science and knowledge-based practices, and fixing monthly line rate and call rate of BTCL Tk 20 and Tk 1 for per unit ( every 10 minutes).
Among others, chief adviser of the CRM Sayed Margub Morshed, its law secretary Advocate Zulfiq Akhtar
