Govt fails to realise expected revenue from telecom sector

The government has failed to realise projected revenue in 2015-16 fiscal year due to merger agreement of Robi Axiata Limited and Airtel Bangladesh Limited.

National Board of Revenue (NBR) has identified the reasons, which incurred a shortfall to the targeted revenue in telecommunication sector in 2015-16 fiscal year.

On January 29, Robi and Airtel signed a merger agreement in Kuala Lumpur to venture into a joint business operation in Bangladesh. The joint venture will be named as Robi.

Upon completion, Axiata will hold 68.3 percent stake in the combined entity while Bharti will hold 25 percent. The remaining 6.7 percent will be held by the existing shareholder, NTT DOCOMO of Japan.
Finance ministry has identified five more reasons, which impacted the government’s revenue earning in the telecommunication sector in this fiscal.

The finance ministry came up with this disclosure after a review a meeting with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) recently.

NBR projected to earn TK2,800 cr in the first nine months, but finally it earned around Tk2,500 cr.

According to NBR documents, the government expected to earn huge revenue from 4G auction in the current fiscal, which it has postponed.

In 2013-14 fiscal year, the government earned around Tk6,000 cr by auctioning 3G.