0
LAHORE, April 17: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) might soon be writing off over Rs850 million arrears stuck with some payphone operators who have either already opted out of business or are on their way out.
Of Rs850 million, around Rs350 million belong to current default, whereas Rs500 million have accumulated during last many months.
The matter was recently noted by Federal Science and Technology Minister Dr Attaur Rehman, and the company was directed to recover the arrears. But, unfortunately, no progress has been reported uptill now.
The PTCL authorities claim that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) shares the blame for liberally issuing licences to all and sundry without checking their financial strength.
The PTA, on the other hand, says that it only introduced a healthy business when issued licences to around 81 applicants. Out of them, 60 are still active.
A PTA spokesman maintained that it was duty of the PTCL to recover the dues because it was the PTCL that entered into an inter-connection agreement with these payphone companies.
