ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Information Technology on Friday claimed that it almost eliminated grey traffic after which legal international incoming traffic shot up from less than 400 million minutes to more than 1.4 billion minutes per month during the last six months.

“Grey traffic has gone down to a level where it is no longer a concern,” Secretary IT Ministry Azmat Ali Ranjha told parliamentarians during a meeting.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on IT demanded the complete eradication of grey traffic and harsh punishments for those involved in the illegal practice which cost the government over $1 billion in losses.

Grey traffic is defined as the use of illegal telephone exchanges for making international calls bypassing the legal routes and exchanges.

The meeting was informed that while these illegal exchanges were installed mostly by individuals in houses across the country, some long distance and international operators (LDI) were also involved in the illegal business.

In his briefing, Mr Ranjha explained how legal/white incoming international minutes continued to increase. He said grey traffic increased significantly after the government introduced the international clearing house (ICH) policy in October 2012.

“Legal incoming minutes dropped from two billion a month to less than 400 million per month in the following two years. Describing it illegal, the Supreme Court in June 2014 directed the government to withdraw the ICH regime despite resistance from the 14 LDI operators in Pakistan,” the secretary added.

IT ministry informs NA body that legal international incoming traffic shot up from less than 400 million minutes to 1.4 billion minutes per month in six months

Under the ICH introduced by the PPP government, charges for incoming international phone calls increased manifolds as the policy empowered the LDI operators to negotiate charges for incoming international calls. Pakistanis settled abroad were forced to switch to alternate means of communications, especially on internet such as Skype and Viber etc.

“Though grey traffic cannot be completely abolished, the PTA is continuously monitoring incoming international traffic,” said Mr Ranjha.

The meeting learnt that in collaboration with the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), the PTA had conducted nearly 300 raids since 2009, and arrested over 250 people involved in grey trafficking.

PTA Chairman Dr Ismail Shah explained how his office had blocked all SIMs and confiscated equipment such as computers and exchanges used for grey trafficking.

“Grey traffic saw further decline after the biometric SIM verification (BSV) exercise in Pakistan. It became easier to trace the owners who used local SIMs to terminate incoming international calls,” said Mr Shah.

He explained how grey traffic had decreased by more than 70 per cent since the BSV exercise was completed in April 2015.

“Grey traffic will further decrease to the minimum with the help of focused policy measures, competition in the market and continued regulatory efforts to curb the illegal practice,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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