Find out users of unregistered phone worth Tk1-2 lakh

State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak has directed the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to track the users of unregistered mobile phones worth Tk 1 lakh or more and take action against them.

He gave this instruction at a seminar, titled 'Challenges and Prospects in the Production of Mobile Handset in the Country', organised by Telecom and Technology Reporters Network Bangladesh (TRNB), an organisation of telecommunication and information technology journalists, at the Telecommunication Directorate at Tejgaon in the capital on Thursday (June 13).

Presided over by TRNB President Rased Mehedi, the seminar was conducted by the organisation's general secretary Masuduzzaman Robin.

In his speech at the seminar, Palak directed BTRC to preserve the database of registered mobile phones used in the country and provide it immediately, if needed, to law enforcement agencies, NBR and Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection.

BTRC Chairman Engineer Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, Director General of Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection AHM Safikuzzaman, Chief of Detective Branch (DB) Police Harun Or Rashid, Director General of BTRC Moniruzzaman Jewell, Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer of Robi Axiata Limited Shahed Alam, Chief Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Officer of Banglalink Digital Taimur Rahman, AMTOB Secretary General Lt Colonel (retd) Mohammad Zulfikar, and Mobile Phone Industry Owners Association of Bangladesh President Zakaria Shahid, among others, addressed the seminar.

Informing that there is a demand of about 5 crore mobile phones every year in the country, Palak said, “In 2022, the maximum number of 3 crore mobile phones were assembled or produced in Bangladesh. The rest were imported from abroad, and some were brought into the country illegally. By 2023-24, the number of production has decreased. But the number of mobile users is not decreasing.”

Addressing the mobile phone manufacturers, Palak said, “I agree with your demands. BTRC will provide you information and technology support. The DB chief has assured that the Detective Branch would extend all cooperation to the BTRC. Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection has also assured of all-out support to you.”

The state minister said, “We have enacted the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act from the Telecommunication Control Act. In addition to regulation, we are focusing on expansion of the sector to increase employment as well as export earnings.”

“The NEIR system will be updated. It is now active. It is open so that any citizen can check for themselves. We will advertise in the media. We will send awareness messages to consumers so that they register willingly for personal safety. If you bring a phone from abroad, register it,” he said.

“Otherwise, we will request NBR to find out the price of which phones are worth Tk 50,000 or Tk 1-2 lakh from the database. They certainly qualify to pay taxes. Then NBR can access that database and track unregistered phone users and take action against them. We will not block, but allow NBR to use the database for increasing revenue collection,” Palak informed.

Palak said, “We will provide a 10 percent cash incentive in case of export. I will arrange to get clearance from the Ministry of Commerce in this regard.”