Telcos can appeal only against fine

A parliamentary committee has revised its recommendation allowing telecom operators and ICT-based organisations to appeal against only fines by the BTRC, but not against any other actions by the telecom regulator or the government.

However, the parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications ministry, scrutinising a bill for amending the telecom law, on July 5 decided to recommend a provision for filing appeal against fines or any actions of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) or the government.

The recommendation came amid concern among telecom operators and ICT-based organisations.

The bill was placed in parliament on June 13 for amending the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act 2001 with some new provisions. One of the provisions allows punishing telecom operators for wrongdoings without giving them any scope for appeal.

The parliamentary body in its draft report proposed allowing telecom operators and ICT-based organisations to file appeal against any actions of BTRC or the government.

But the committee at the last moment brought changes to its proposal limiting the scope for appeal as the post and telecommunications ministry disagreed over it, sources in the committee said.

Hasanul Haq Inu, chief of the parliamentary body, placed the scrutiny report on the bill and recommended its passage yesterday.

The committee also brought changes to its proposal for forming a three-member appeal board with a telecom expert as member to dispose of appeals from telecom operators.

But the committee dropped the recommendation for keeping a telecom expert on the board. It said the government will appoint two members of the board headed by a High Court judge.

The parliamentary body also omitted the proposal for setting a 60-day timeframe for disposal of an appeal.

The post and telecommunications minister on June 13 placed the bill in parliament. The bill also proposed curtailing BTRC's exclusive jurisdiction to issue licences and fixing tariff rates. If the bill gets through, the BTRC will have to take prior permission from the government to issue licence and fix tariff rates.

-Daily Star