A group of former senior officials of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) have been accused of causing a staggering Tk 90.1 billion loss to the state through deliberate misuse of power, illegal decisions, and revenue manipulation in favour of private International Gateway (IGW) operators.
According to an official briefing, six former BTRC executives—former chairmen Sunil Kanti Bose and Dr Shahjahan Mahmud, former vice chairman Brig Gen (Retd) Md Ahsan Habib Khan, and former commissioners Md Jahurul Haque, Md Rezaul Kader, and Md Aminul Hasan—have been named in a corruption and money laundering case approved by the authorities.
The plaintiff in the case and the investigation officer is Md Jalal Uddin Ahmed, Director of the ACC’s Khulna Divisional Office.
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) investigators said the alleged financial forgery took place between October 2015 and January 2018, during which these officials continued a set of “temporary and experimental” call termination rates and revenue-sharing arrangements long after their legal expiry.
In 2014, IGW operators were allowed to bring international incoming calls at a discounted and experimental termination rate of US$ 0.015 per minute, replacing the standard rate of $ 0.03.
Similarly, the government’s revenue share was lowered from 51.75 per cent to 40per cent, while IGW operators’ share was raised from 13.25 per cent to 20 per cent for a trial period of one year.
However, instead of restoring the original rates after September 2015, the accused officials illegally extended the lower rates for another 28 months, without any approval from the government, violating the Telecommunication Act, guidelines, and government directives.
Officials say these decisions were taken with “dishonest intent,” benefitting IGW operators at the expense of the national exchequer.
As a result, the government incurred losses in three major areas those include revenue sharing loss worth Tk 3.83 billion; allowing IGW operators to continue importing calls at a reduced rate led to an additional loss of Tk 29.41 billion while failing to ensure that the government-set call rates were applied to incoming international calls, Bangladesh was deprived of approximately US$ 72.1 million, equivalent to Tk 56.85 billion.
Altogether, the total damage stands at Tk 90.1 billion, marking one of the largest alleged financial frauds involving a regulatory body in recent years.
Authorities said the former officials abused their regulatory powers to favour private operators, amounting to “criminal breach of trust and misuse of authority.” The case has been approved under Sections 409 and 418 of the Penal Code, Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947, and Sections 4(2) and 4(3) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2012.
Legal experts say the scale of financial damage makes the case highly significant, with the possibility of further investigations into whether any IGW owners colluded with the accused.
Officials said further action will be taken after completing the investigation and identifying all beneficiaries involved in the alleged forgery.
