SD on SIM will be raised to 20% and VAT on eSIM will be increased to Tk 300 each

Cost for mobile phone use will increase in the next fiscal as Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed to hike the duty on SIM card-related services to 5 percent.

Subscribers using biometrically unregistered SIM cards will have their outgoing calls blocked after today, while incoming calls are likely to stay active for “a few hours”, according to a top official of a telecom operator.

Tarana Halim, state minister for post and telecommunication, says 3.30 crore SIMs (subscriber identity module) are yet to be re-registered although the deadline expires Tuesday.

The disconnection, which will be temporary, will accompany a warning that will give subscribers another chance to re-register within a specific period of time. But after that, defaulters will lose their number.

High Court will deliver Tuesday its verdict on a writ against biometric re-registration and registration for mobile phone’s subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.

The cabinet yesterday assured mobile phone users that their privacy and safety would not be endangered after the biometric registration of their SIM cards.

The High Court has questioned the legality of biometric registration for purchase of mobile operators’ Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

A Supreme Court lawyer serves a legal notice seeking a halt to biometric registration for subscriber identity module (SIM) cards of mobile operators claiming it violates privacy and has a potential malafide intention.

Speaker of the Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury says biometric registration of mobile subscriber identity modules (SIMs) will stop criminal activities using cell phones.

The government decides to allow a person to register maximum 20 cellular phone SIM cards against his/her national identity card, says State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim.

Mobile phone users, who would fail to re-register their numbers by November 15, will have their numbers blocked, the telecom division says.

The trial run of biometric registration system for mobile phone SIM cards has been inaugurated today.

Verification and re-registration process will continue for three months. Devoid of re-registration, a SIM will be blocked.