ISLAMABAD, June 16: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is developing a plan to eliminate grey traffic business causing the country an annual loss of Rs3 billion. “Comprehensive measures will be taken with the help of agencies concerned to eliminate the grey traffic business in Pakistan,” said PTA chairman Shahzada Alam Malik here on Friday. He was presiding over the first meeting of the vigilance committee on illegal telecom traffic at the PTA headquarters.

The grey traffic is a system in which illegal telephone exchanges are established in collusion with officials, through which international calls are made at local rates.

In the past, the PTA took a number of steps to thwart the illegal call termination business and conducted 20 raids last year. The vigilance committee, constituted by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, will further enhance efforts against the menace.

The PTA has also reduced accounting settlement rate (ASR) by 38.61 per cent during the last one year to reduce financial incentive in the grey telephony. It is estimated that the illegal business causes a loss of around Rs3 billion annually.

The vigilance committee meeting was attended by Nooruddin Baqai, member, telecom, Ministry of IT and Telecom; Mohamed Bamakhrama, president of the PTCL; Rear Admiral Shahid Farooq, chairman of the National Telecommunication Company; Maj-Gen Shahid Maqbool, director-general of the Special Communication Organization; Mohammad Aftab, joint secretary for the Ministry of Interior; director general (enforcement) of the PTA.

Mr Malik urged mobile phone operators to cooperate with related departments to reduce illegal call termination and pass on data regarding heavy mobile users.