The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has dissolved the Steering Committee that was originally formed to address the issue of alleged financial relaxations granted to long-distance and international (LDI) companies.
This committee had been reconstituted to tackle the arrears involving LDI companies after the ministry decided to retract a previous letter that had granted exemptions totaling billions of rupees to these companies.
The now-dissolved committee included representatives from all nine LDI companies, alongside existing members from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the IT ministry. Moving forward, the ministry will handle the matter directly.
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According to sources, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has also submitted its response to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding this issue.
In its response, the telecom regulator stated that it was unable to collect dues from the LDI companies due to the absence of a policy directive from the federal government.
The PTA noted that it had issued notices to the LDI companies to clear pending dues and provided several options for payment. Additionally, the PTA highlighted that litigation initiated by the LDI companies further hindered the collection of these dues.
Furthermore, the PTA mentioned that a letter issued by the IT ministry caused confusion, which was later retracted by the ministry.
