BDNews24 | February 7, 2011
Bangladesh’s largest mobile company has grown by over 14 percent in the last year. Profits have, however, fallen.
Grameenphone said it would have made more money if it did not have to subsidise operations.
The only mobile operator on the stock market reported profits of Tk 10.71 billion compared to Tk 14.97 billion the year before last, most of which came from phone calls.
The company’s finance head, Raihan Shamsi, explained that the subsidies were spent for taxes on SIM cards while presenting the annual report. “The profits would have been Tk 17.51 billion.”
According to him, the company had to spend Tk 6.80 billion to subsidise SIM cards last year, which appeared to be a major concern for the mobile operator, which has a 44 percent market share.
The outgoing chief executive Oddvar Hesjedal said the SIM tax presented a significant barrier for the industry. He said operators were sacrificing profits “for the sake of growth”.
In 2010, the mobile company added 6.7 million new customers raising its base to over a fifth of Bangladesh’s population while it’s internet users grew by 82 percent.
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