Flaws In Our Market

Imperfection lies in the market, Collective efforts needed to make it perfect.

The basic ingredients of a perfectly competitive market have not been functioning well for a long time in Bangladesh. Let us take a look at key characteristics of this kind of market(source:Investopedia):

• All firms sell identical product.
• All firms are price takers,not price influencers.
• Buyers(as well as sellers) have complete or perfect information about the product being sold and prices charged by each firm now,earlier and in the future.
• Capital resources and labor are completely mobile
• Market share does not influence price
• Firms can enter or exit the market without cost.

There is however imperfection in every market and industry and pure competitive market is an idealized state. Nevertheless, govt,consumers and industry all thrive to achieve a perfectly competitive market or at least try to get as close to such an idealized state. Now let us see how these characteristics are violated in Bangladesh.

All firms are price takers is only possible when there exists a large number of buyers and sellers. Except kitchen market, most of the markets including consumer good market consist of few firms,which influence price. That means there is not too many sellers. Industry or market where initial investment is too high does not expect large number of producers. Utility, aviation can be presented as an example. But other industries which require relatively fair investment do not see enough market players. That means a good amount of entry barrier is put in place, deterring the entry of new firms. Biased govt policy,which is prevalent in this part of the world,is behind fostering the entry barrier. Rice,soybean oil market could be an apt example. International market prices are falling and current rate tells a price around Tk 46/kilo. But it is selling at much higher rate. Reason is unknown. But if govt considers consumer interests then awarding more permits to rice importers may make an impact. In the soybean oil market, few conglomerates were allowed to operate and in the change of events they showed their colors,creating a difficult situation to deal with. Moreover, proper documentation at the wholesale level of soybean oil market is not maintained, as I mentioned here several times. Tacit support to this kind of practices by the govt in the past contributed to the anarchy in the soybean oil market.

Flawed macroeconomic policy in the past led to higher policy rate hike later,[causing] barrier to new entrants in any industry. At the same time, exit from an industry is not that easy because many lending institutions sued many firms for not paying back the credit.

Capital resources and labor are not perfectly mobile here. In the past, credit often went to the projects that were not viable and that promoted creed loyalty over merit. Moreover, unaccountable development projects by govt limited private sector's access to credit as large part of bank's money went to finance these public projects. Similarly, politically motivated thrust sectors witness destruction of productive capital. Labor engaged in these sectors ,which are not so productive. There are just few companies in the consumer good market. So workers have little choice to go elsewhere.

Lack of information persists in the market. Consumers and small producers do not get the complete picture of the production cost. Moreover, motif of harvesting an industry often leads to narrative manufacturing. This disinformation/ lack of information prevents the consumer from making right choices and small producers from taking appropriate steps. Lack of proper regulatory environment is also a reason consumers not getting complete information about an industry.

It appears that too few firms and lack of regulatory environment are the main obstacles towards a perfectly competitive market in Bangladesh. If regulatory setup functioned properly,we did not have misallocation of credit in the banks. Regular auditioning and intervention by BCC,CAB,BTRC,BERC and BSEC will let consumers know why there are few firms in the industry ,true cost of production, why firms are not paying dividends despite making profits and what the future fiscal and energy policy will be. Market is not created with perfect competition. It is the collective efforts that will lead it to perfect competition.

Change Means More Choices,Not Less

True change does not mean less choices, Competition raises through regulatory practices.

Perhaps the biggest victim of the present govt is the regulatory environment. Since this interim govt has an apolitical look, bureaucracy responsible for operations of regulatory bodies does not feel urge to function them. Regulatory bodies continued routine work during political govt. Even that is somehow stopped. Consumers are paying the price. Regime change is supposed to bring more options to consumers, giving them some comfort.

Yet experience so far is completely opposite. Let me share some personal experiences. Recent earthquake exposed once again that the mobile internet is terribly slow in the country.Except one leading operator,all the operators provide slow internet since January 10,2024. I desperately contacted in vain BTRC earlier to improve the service of mobile internet. Product prices have gone up,but speed is terribly slow. As I tried to post my situation at home on that frightening day, I found how slow the thing is. They however offered me free minutes to call the dear ones later. Meanwhile ,operators blame the govt for taxing them too much: Tk22-28 [goes] to govt for every Tk 100 spent on mobile phone services, the operators claim. Till July this year, there was some sort of public hearing at BTRC,even that is stopped. The biggest inaction is seen from the Bangladesh Competition Commission(BCC). It seems to stop functioning.

The dairy products of the local shops are overwhelmingly dominated by two brands: a govt-backed cooperative and an NGO-run subsidiary. [Govt-run] cooperative is still there because money can be appropriated without any accountability and a trade-union like atmosphere exists. The NGO-run subsidiary is there because they have other businesses in the neighborhood: Mobile Financial Services (MFS), microcredit business. These allow them to influence the local business environment and the supply chain. Microcredit agencies do not pay taxes. But the dairy brand does pay taxes.

This is where we badly need intervention of BCC. Those who are involved in credit/capital management businesses should not engage in any other business at all. In the USA, we do not see Citibank has a food subsidiary, tech company or an university. Even if it does have any,it should not possess a significant market share in the respective industry. Most of these subsidiaries control more than 50% market share at home. As the winter arrived, to my surprise, I found that only butter brand available at the local shop is that of NGO-run subsidiary. I do not have any issues with the brand. But I want more options. More choices mean more competition, low price, better quality. That is not happening around me.

Sometimes regulatory body feels awkward when top military bureaucrat's dear one,some advisors have lucrative professional engagement with NGO-run subsidiary.

Point is BCC does not need to wait for any complaint, it can intervene immediately whenever it sees capture of significant market share by a company, violating competition and consumer rights.

Consumers are paying the price from their pockets. Last year a tyre factory owned by a former ruling party MP witnessed vandalization. The tyre brand went out of the business, hiking the prices of tyres in the local market. The void is still not filled.

Another businessman cum politician,now in jail, owns a pharmaceutical company with global reputation and it had easy access to all the neighborhoods when Awami League was in power. Now some of its medicines are no more at the local market. Some of them are cheap and good in quality. So patients are forced to purchase the costly options.

The issues here are: first,it is indeed bad idea to finance lucrative businesses of politically exposed individual. Beximco's acquisition of GlaxoSmithkline operations here could have been stopped at the first place. It is a serious regulatory failure. Second, in the change of events ,regulatory body's intervention is needed to smooth operation of the troubled companies so that consumers do not get hurt and competition prevails.

Another business group currently under scrutiny for plundering a bank and laundering money abroad, is attempting to promote a new food brand. At one hand, authority remained mum when it plundered a bank. On the other, authority allows it to venture upon new businesses while taking a complete opposite stance against other groups with opposite creed. This kind of double standard should be avoided. Govt needs to mull about greater good of the consumer and business environment and its subsequent business should reflect it.

Competition and consumer rights are always less prioritized issues for any govt. By fixing the two , we could fix many issues including the political ones. Unfortunately regulatory bodies take a hit instead of becoming more active during the interim govt. I highlighted here before in many pieces(See"Growing Unease:Revenue & Inflation" published here on December 06,2024), companies and institutions that have capacity to mobilize resources at the ground and have political aspirations should be subject of intense scrutiny and regulations*. Somehow conflict of interest and inaction of bureaucracy hold back the regulatory body to function properly. Competition at the market cannot be ensured unless the regulatory bodies do the routine work regularly. I think the constitution and the Parliament should empower the bodies so that a fair play ground prevails for all and consumers can get more choices. Any true change means more choices,not less!

[*Update: this piece is updated by me on November 25,2025 at 9:10 AM Bangladesh Standard Time. Update includes reference to seeking regulations on institutions that have huge capital and political aspirations.]

Allow New Mobile Operators

Allow new mobile operators to enter So that consumers feel much better.

Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is going to hold hearing on the services provided by telecom operators on May 8. Prior to national election, it successfully abolished the 3-day data pack and made 7-day the minimum validity period. It retains the 30-day and unlimited validity packs. Consumers, however, pay a higher price for new validity packs. In general, prices of all data packs increased. Many operators lost small duration clients ,but made significant gains in profits in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. News reports divulged that GrameenPhone earned Taka 13.38 billion profit in the first three months. Meanwhile, Robi earned Taka 1.70 billion profit during the same period. It is important to note that Telenor and Axiata merged their Asian operations. So both the operators should be treated as same.

I used Teletalk for a long time as it offered the cheapest service in the country. But one week after the national election, quality of its service deteriorated. After making complaints, I did not see any improvement and I switched to other operators. Prior to using Teletalk, I interchangeably used various operators ,depending on which one offered the competitive prices. Many operators offered insurance for mobile phones in case they got damaged or new phone devices along with their SIMs. Sometimes later I discovered that far too often my phone got dead. I needed to run to a mobile servicing shop to flush/reinstall the operating software. Most of the time this happened while using the service of an operator based in Egypt. Another time it happened with another operator that offered freebasics, free internet service offered by Facebook. After paying between Taka 3000 and 4000 as mobile servicing fee for fixing my hacked phone in the span of three years,I thought it was time to change my phone. Back then Teletalk offered the most attractive services. And in the last two years I did not have to run for mobile servicing. I do not want to blame the operators directly for the hacking of phones. When we use browsers or internet,developers with ill intentions may target the mobile phones and infect them with malicious add-ons or software. Sometimes deranged individual within an operator may do sabotage act. But with the Teletalk I didn't have this kind of experience. I lost telepoints,balance and uncarried data. On some occasions ,I got back missing telepoints and balance after complaining to the highest level. On some occasions, I didn't get back anything. The horrifying experience of mobile servicing forced me later to document every telephone service mishap happened to me and report back to proper authority including the BTRC. In the last two and half years ,I did not have to spend much as I was using the cheapest service offered by public telecom operator. Later I learned Teletalk network expansion had been mostly done with Chinese credit and it owes a lot of money to public company and other vendors. Government is planning to sell part of its share to make it profitable again. I think the merger between Telenor and Axiata did a lot of damage to the services offered by the operators. Both the operators, followed by others, offered the identical services at the same price after that merger. Nowadays operators make hefty profits by selling internet data. But as consumers we don't know how to measure the data we consumed. I wrote a detailed piece about mobile data packs few years back. So I don't want to highlight the issue any more. The point is allowing few more operators or selling new licenses to operators originating from countries with huge trade potentials could make the telecom market competitive again. If we allow availing the service of railway optical fiber network and satellite internet along with the license ,then more investors feel encouraged to step forward. Prior to election, a Telenor director in an interview with a local daily hinted to wind up their operations here. But few weeks ago GrameenPhone boss in an interview told they made a u-turn on that decision and decided to stay. It is a good news,otherwise we will see another round of increase in the prices of telecom services.

BTRC has to take fair share of the blame. It failed to stop the merger between operations of Telenor and Axiata here in Bangladesh. For more than a decade telecom operators remained top revenue source of the government. How could BTRC allow such merger inside Bangladesh? It directly affected the revenue earning in this sector. Look at the first three quarter of the profits of the two( or same) operators. BTRC should make a regulation about publishing details about unused data in a year. Because consumers pay for data but some data remain unused and do not carry forward. So they have right to know what the operators do with that data. This may fall into wrong hands or be used in wrong purposes. Operators should disclose what amount of data remains unused and what they do with that. I think it should be given back to consumers as bonus or special offers or to offer welfare services like free internet for education/social awareness/alleviating digital divide. Nowadays we see telecom, real estate regulatory bodies like RAJUK are being headed by military men. I completely oppose this practice as those who lack transparency and accountability could not call into question others integrity. In that light BTRC simply cannot charge operators Taka 10 for some of the data collection activities it intends to undertake. In some hearings BTRC survey report justified abolishing short duration data pack. Contrary to the survey report, many news reports divulged that many consumers were unhappy with such idea. In this case one may doubt that findings are predetermined. I think Parliamentary committee should be given the task to steer the activities of BTRC and anti-trust activities in telecom services. In functioning democracies, Parliament plays a greater role in such case. We know we have problems here but we should start the practice and rely less on men-in-fatigue. It is a surprise that many agencies failed to anticipate the biggest merger in the telecom industry that happened in Malaysia, where many former senior army personnel and their relatives took refuge. Look at the strategic ties with Qatar. Despite commitment of boots-on-the-ground, Qatar bluntly refused to sell LNG on deferred payment. And the decision of strategic ties with Qatar was taken by few sidestepping the Parliament. Let's come back to point. We need new telecom operators to give a relief to the consumers and to augment the govt revenue.

The Missing Data Phenomenon

Mobile operators face whimsical tariff, Consumers pay a price massive.

Loss of unused data has become a major concern among mobile data pack users. BTRC held several hearings in the past about the issue.Mostly private operators get the blame. Now public operator like Teletalk joined the party. Currently, Teletalk offered the cheapest data pack in the country.

Other operators, which continue to sustain punitive tariff payment, just pass their burden on consumers,making their products much expensive.

Even the 72-hour duration data pack became costly compared to other competitors. But the problem is it is not easy to measure the data you consume.

Back in 2018 when BTRC raised the duration of small internet package ,I wrote a piece titled “Asymmetric Information And Data Pack” highlighting this missing data phenomenon:

"""

Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission has recently instructed all the mobile operators to raise the duration of small internet packages. From now onwards, all the packages have minimum duration of 7 days and maximum duration of 30 days.

According to a news report, mostly students, youths, occasional internet users and lower income groups are main clients of this small packs.

As small packs are still available in the market, consumers are still somehow unaffected by the decision. But the operators may drive them to relatively costly packages using BTRC decision as a pretext. The restriction is only on the duration.

Being a user of this small packs, I am also likely to suffer from BTRC decision.

Nowadays data packs become a major source of revenues for mobile operators.

One can see the asymmetric information playing a role in the interaction between data pack purchaser and operators. Here consumers (principal) have no clue on the type of operators(agent)they are dealing with.Operator may pretend to be honest and act as a dishonest one.

Despite the fact that there are many operators in the cellular data market, they behave and offer products in unison. And two big operators have merged. So, this cellular data market cannot be categorized as a textbook competitive market.

When you buy goods from a grocer you have the means to recheck the quantity you bought. Unfortunately, most of the data pack users do not have means to verify the usage of purchased data.

One may argue that there are apps that keep records of data usage. But I lost faith on them after I had found one giving suspicious reading.

So an internet user may pay for a 50 MB pack but ended up getting less of what he paid for. It is pretty easy to monitor the talk time, but very hard to measure the kilobyte or megabyte you used.

So, it is highly likely that operators cheat their customers. This is an example of hidden information problem, where some operators pretend to be selling the right data pack but deliver less output.

I would like to share my own experience in this regard.Two years ago I used to buy data pack of 1 GB at Tk 89 for a week. Soon I discovered that I ran out of my data before the expiration date. I used the mobile internet and pretty convinced that smartphone consumes less data than a laptop. Earlier I had used internet on my laptop spending less than Tk 100 for the same data pack for a month.

I had a belief that using internet on smartphone would cost me less. To my surprise, my internet cost quadrupled. Far too often my internet packs finished before the expiry date.

I visited mostly news sites and social media. And from my past experience I knew these visits consumed modest amount of MBs.

I went to a local mobile balance recharge shop and shared my concern. The pack seller advised me to buy pack for lesser volume with smaller duration. I migrated to such pack.

I discovered that smaller packs worth Tk 5, Tk 11 and Tk20 provided me the desired utility within the given duration. And I slashed significantly my monthly cost on internet.

Later I figured out how it happened. Cheating operator made a profile on your internet usage. For long duration you may not be serious about internet use. Based on that profile, it cheats on you about your data usage. It pretends to be an honest operator and delivers less than what you paid for.

By changing my internet use , I made the cheating process less attractive to the operator. My weekly spending was around Tk 90. By changing the internet use, I reduced it to Tk 30 per week, one third of Tk 90. Moreover, i switched to limited-duration packs, which are less prone to cheating. I altered completely my weekly internet use.Now the operator found my pack less attractive to cheat.

In data pack market all the operators follow somewhat similar product line, all of them offering small data packs, varying slightly in duration and volume.But fierce competition is absent here. You have an aura that there is only one operator.

What BTRC has done is to drive us to situation where consumers are less better off given that asymmetric information prevails in the market. Now the operators , as all of them have to obey the regulator’s decision, may offer data packs that are relatively expensive compared to earlier ones. Every one of them knows other will do the same.

With relatively higher price and duration, consumers also face the higher risk of being cheated. They may end up getting less than what they paid for.¹

"""

This is exactly what is happening now. The 72-hour long data ends pretty early. For my case it lasts only 24-hour. It increased my monthly costs 5 times more than what I paid in 2018. So I decided to switch to longer-duration packs with larger data volumes, hoping such move will again slash my monthly costs. Teletalk allows to carry the unused data to the newly purchased pack. I found proofs in smaller packs like 350 MB/750MB/1 GB. It convinced me such things will likely to happen in longer duration pack. Just a day before the expiration of one such pack, I purchased another pack. Previous pack’s unused 7GB data added to the current pack and total data reflected it. But after the expiration, I surprisingly noticed that my unused 7GB data was gone. I did not expect this from a public operator that is meant to protect consumer interest. I suffer a monetary loss in the times of high inflation. I instantly reported the phenomenon to BTRC.

Many of the consumers do not take account of such missing data and net welfare loss is huge in this case. The resources may end up covering expenses of some vested quarters, who are not good for the people. I do not blame the operators too much as they have to do business in an environment that is becoming difficult to operate. If government continues to slap tariff, we the consumers bear larger part of the burden. No wonder more people switch back to dumb phones nowadays.

Notes And References

1. ”Asymmetric Information And Data Pack”,Rezaul Hoque,December 16,2018,https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com. For more read at https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/asymmetric-information-and-data-pack/

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(08 octobre --- 14 octobre)

Ma Semaine Gastronomique

Date	Petit déjeuner	Déjeuner	Dîner	Snacks,Sucreries,Boissons et Fritures
08	Pain tchapati,Omelette	Riz,Papaye,Gourde de serpent,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz,Gourde de serpent,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz gonflé
09	Pain tchapati,Omelette	Riz,Ruhi,Aubergine-Ruban sec-Petit Taro Chinois-Eddoe-Bombili sec	Riz,Œuf poché,Aubergine-Ruban sec-Petit Taro Chinois-Eddoe-Bombili sec	Riz gonflé
10	Pain tchapati,Mélasse	Riz,Haricot vert,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz,Haricot vert,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz gonflé
11	Pain tchapati,Œuf poché,Haricot vert	Riz,Haricot vert,Épinard malabar,Ruhi	Riz,Épinard malabar,Ruhi	Riz gonflé,Lait
12	Pain tchapati,Papaye-Pommes de terre	Riz,Papaye-Pommes de terre,Aubergine-Ruban sec-Petit Taro Chinois-Eddoe-Bombili sec-Gourde épineuse,Courge amère,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz,Haricot vert,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz gonflé
13	Pain tchapati,Omelette, Courge amère	Riz,Labra(Gourde calebasse-Graines du jacquier-Eddoe),Courge amère	Riz,Labra(Gourde calebasse-Graines du jacquier-Eddoe),Œuf poché	Riz gonflé
14	Pain tchapati,Haricot	Riz,Purée des Pommes de terre,Gourde calebasse,Soupe aux lentilles	Riz,Purée des Pommes de terre,Gourde calebasse,Soupe aux lentilles,Œuf poché	Riz gonflé

A Windowless Fortress In The Making

One Digital Security Act made a digital fortress
Another draconian law may make it breathless.
Could the govt stay long in such a suffocating place?

In another bizarre move, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission(BTRC) has drafted policy aiming to firm its grip on social media platforms. Doubts have been raised from various groups as it may be another draconian policy to nab on opposite and dissent voices.

The clauses to be incorporated in the proposed policy indeed sound harassing.For instance, BTRC policy proposed to take and resolve complaints on content in a matter of 20 days. And complaints have to be taken into consideration within 24 hours. If government find content objectionable,then social media have to remove them within 72 hours. Moreover, social media platforms have to recruit employee whose job is to maintain contact between government officials and social media platforms¹.

There is little reason to believe that such regulations would not be misused. In the past, we witnessed how newspaper servers were blocked for several hours in a bid to comply them government order to remove content deemed critical to government.

Recently, many YouTube channels critical to government complained that their contents(video clips) had been removed from social media platforms raising false copy right claims. The channels claimed government-backed employee of social media platforms acted in connivance with false copy right claimers to jeopardize their broadcasting activity.

So examples are aplenty.We need to grow worry about its potential misuse. Back in 2018, soon after government adopted the Digital Security Act, I penned a piece titled “A Digital Fortress In The Making”² highlighting the pitfalls of such draconian law. Sharing it again:

Government has finally turned the country into a digital fortress with the introduction of Digital Security Act 2018. Journalists and human rights activists have already expressed concerns as the Act miserably failed to reflect the suggestions they had proposed in their previous encounters with the government.

Since its introduction just couple of months before election, the DSA 2018 has become a subject of constant criticism. Many believe it is a nuanced threat to the free press already struggling in a hostile environment to cover the wrong doings of people’s representatives and irregularities in the next election.

Government keeps pressing that it does not foresee any misuse of the Act. However, reports suggest that controversial clause of ICT Act was reincorporated into this act that stipulates that authority can detain any person for defamation, dissemination of defamatory content, incitement to violence, and hurting religion. What is worrying the accused may be imprisoned till the court decides whether the one is guilty or not. And the capital punishment is 14-year imprisonment.

Inclusion of some of the clauses of the Official Secrets Act 1923 further added salt to the injury.

Many fear the DSA could meet the fate of Special Power Ordinance 1974, introduced by the ruling party back in 1974. The SPO, provides Police authority to detain indiscriminately anyone without furnishing a proper reason, became grist to subsequent governments’ mill as it was extensively used to subdue critical voices and rivals.Meanwhile blames for making such draconian act heaped on Awami League.

Provided Bangladesh’s vindicative political culture, there is hardly any reason to believe why this Act will not be misused by ruling regime.

So, despite government’s crowd-pleasing assurance, there is little room for remaining assured. In the past we saw how wayward party loyalists lodged harassing cases against individuals, journalists, opposition activists, academics for frank posts on social media. Even for divulging truth about retired Army personnel. Many were thrown into jail. And are still there!

Internationally acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam is latest victim of this hate campaign. He recorded the acts of mayhem caused during the safe-road movement and gave frank opinion about it to a foreign TV channel. He was detained wielding the controversial clause 57 of ICT Act.

Taking cue from Mr Shahidul if an individual wants to document the wrongdoings of ruling party stalwarts or public servants , that individual could embrace the similar fate of Mr Shahidul. This is the message the government tries to convey with the introduction of the new law.

The l’Affaire SK Sinha teaches us that Bangladeshis in general need to be worried about the state of freedom of expression.

This latest move will take a heavy dent in the popularity of Awami League among the journalists whose opportunities to work increased manifolds with outbursts of media outlets and government’s review of wage hike.

The DSA will not only widen the scope of working of law enforcement authorities, but it may worsen the harassment of presspeople.

One senior journalist , in an interview accorded to an international media, fears that DSA may provide ammunition to authority to seize server of a media house.

As mainstream media may mire in self-censorship restraining themselves from going after earth-shaking political and corruption events, more and more readers may subscribe to rumor-mongering machines on Social Media. Contrary to the goal publicized by the government in support for DSA.

Furthermore, the DSA has made reporting on corruption harder than ever before. As per the new Act, a journalist’s action could be equated with that of a spy. From now onwards, a journalist runs the risk of breaching the Official Secrets Act and being labeled as Spy if that person wants to investigate corruption at a public office and keeps official documents.

Vice policing may increase in the Arts and Entertainment industry as vested groups may target individuals/groups for contents that they think “defamatory”. In Ekushey Book Fair, we already have a test of this kind of vice policing.

Moreover, information about defense procurement program will become much more difficult to get, even in Social Media. Discussion on defense related corruption may become difficult than ever before. For instance, within the government circle or men-in-fatigue, many may find it wrong to question Election Commission’s purchase of Electronic Voting Machines from an Army-run subsidiary, spending Tk 45 billion of taxpayers money. Meanwhile, opposition parties are crying for troops deployment across the country during national polls. By awarding this kind of lucrative contracts to such institution many see an effort to bring the Army on government side ahead of election.In addition, discussion on defense policy in any public forum will also become difficult with its effect. A government determined to make a Digital Bangladesh is in fact turning it into a digital fortress where anyone could be imprisoned on whimsical suspicion. Contrary to the vision of uniting people through a digital revolution, this DSA further deepens and widens the crack of digital divide by exposing government’s one policy for giving carte blanche to its loyalists and another policy for subduing the critical voices.

The upcoming BTRC regulation on social media platforms would be no different from DSA. Its misuse was pretty heavy. Two journalists were detained during lockdown last year for unearthing corruption in health ministry and caricaturing public figures. One of them killed in the jail while the other left the country. Another journalist is barred from leaving the country after doing report on vaccine purchase. My own WordPress site witnessed obstruction in publishing new contents( in the form of temporary block after every new content) prompting me to open another site on blogspot.

One of the areas where social media is making a difference is their contents and news on defense related issues. While mainstream media is notably mute on discussing and covering defense related issues due to lack of constitutional protection, social media pages and channels take the onus to cover and disseminate crucial defense issues including procurement process. Moreover, many dirty secrets of garrison,anecdotes and political ideology of controversial defense officials are exposed by these pages and channels.

One of the reasons put forward to introduce the harsher form of regulations is that these social media platforms on some occasion spread falsehood, hate and vulgarism. I do agree to some extent with the accusation. But it should not be the pretext to tighten grip on such platforms. Moreover, we often find people in the past holding important position in the govt and public service are often behind such activity. Many conspiracy theorists argue govt agencies floated these channels to control the narrative and to kill the novel idea of social media by tarnishing their images before the public in a bid to introduce draconian laws. Classic case is the Cumilla temple attack and attack on ISKCON temples across the country. Some key suspects were killed extrajudicially by RAB. Further thickening the claims of conspiracy theorists.

As the swelling river washes away polluted substance, government may allow more contents to dilute the harmful effect of contested content. Govt can float its own page and channel on the social media platforms and refute the claims.

These social media to some extent meet the information need of people after the Digital Security Act 2018. Prior to 2018 election, online news platforms played that role. But DSA 2018 clipped their wings. And we saw a controversial election. This latest development may lead us to another such election by muzzling the social media.

Like hash smoke, the draconian laws waft along in such closed environment, causing inertia to maintain the prevailing order. One DSA made Bangladesh a digital fortress, another BTRC regulation may take off the windows and ventilators from that fortress. It is neither good for people, nor for the govt.

Notes And References:

1 “Facebook,YouTube E Vidinishedh Aschhe(Regulations Soon For Facebook And YouTube)”, Suhada Afrin,Prothom Alo(Page-3),February 17,2022.

2 “A Digital Fortress In The Making”,Rezaul Hoque,September 26,2018. https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com For more read at https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/a-digital-fortress-in-the-making/

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(10 février --- 18 février)

Selon un reportage, police a préparé un procès-verbal contre un ancien député dans la tuerie d'un homme à Pallabi,Dacca.

Selon un reportage, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission a préparé une politique pour régler les réseaux sociaux. On trouve réponse à la plainte en 20 jours et enlèvement de contenu en 72 jours parmi les proposition.

Selon un reportage, un médecin a été tué après un rickshaw motorisé avait frappé son rickshaw. Dans les semaines récentes, on voit augmentation dans nombre d’accident dans les rues.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(30 août --- 1 septembre)
Selon un reportage, État islamique a revendiqué un attentat contre police le samedi soir. Le secrétaire général du parti en exercice a mis en op garde qu'il y aurait attentat comme ça à l'avenir.

Selon un reportage, la Chine a mis 5 banques bangladaises dans la liste noire pour avoir détecté les transactions fausses qui coûtaient les importateurs bangladais et chinois millions de dollars.

Selon un reportage, autorité de télécommunications a ordonné de fermer tous les services de télécommunications dans les camps de Rohingya.

Selon un reportage, un atelier de confection a licencié environ 700 ouvriers sous prétexte de manque de commande d'achat à Tejgaon, Dhaka.

Selon un reportage, luttes intestines de la filiale du parti en exercice se sont soldées par fermeture de l'université de la technologie à Noakhali.

Selon un reportage, un policier a été appréhendé pendant un cambriolage à Motijheel.

Selon un reportage, des fidèles du parti en exercice et élèves d'un séminaire ont déjoué une tentative d'évincer une cuisine de séminaire,s'installe dans un parc opéré par la mairie de Dhaka nord à Mohammadpur.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement va bientôt créer RMG Sustainability Council afin de prendre responsabilité de l'Accord, plateforme des acheteurs européens de vêtements bangladais d'ici le 25 novembre.

Enforce Laws To Protect Consumer Rights

Slapping punitive tariffs for hiding information on new subscribers ratchets up tension between telecom regulator and two leading mobile operators. The matter reached to court and the operators sought to settle the issue outside the court. BTRC keeps saying that the two have to pay the tariffs and even cut their bandwidth to comply.

Mobile operators have every reason to get angry over imposition of supplementary duties every now and then. However, telecom regulator does not take the operators into task for violating consumer rights and harming competition.

In recent years, we witnessed mergers of key mobile operators. Interestingly no hue and cry has been heard from the government side. In USA, antitrust laws protect consumer interests and head off initiative to harm competition. At the heart of US antitrust policies lies the Sherman Act , the Clayton Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Sherman Act discourages bad monopoly practices. Meanwhile the Clayton Act prevents price discrimination, tie-ins, exclusive dealings, mergers that shrink competition and control of competing firms by interrelated board of directors. The Federal Trade Commission Act paved the path for creation of Federal Trade Commission Act to enforce antitrust laws.

Like US antitrust laws, Bangladesh in 2012 passed Competition Act that aims " to make provisions to promote, ensure and sustain congenial atmosphere for the competition in the trade, and to prevent, control and eradicate collusion, monopoly and oligopoly, combination or abuse of dominant position or activities adverse to the competition." It also entailed creation of Bangladesh Competition Commission (BCC). Unfortunately BCC first witnessed appointment of its chairman back in 2016 and the body remains a toothless tiger under Ministry of Commerce with an annual budget of Tk 1.8 million, which is subject to ministry's approval.

In USA, not all mergers and acquisitions deem anti-consumer and anti-competition if those amalgamations result in more efficiency for the firm and thereby improving the welfare of the society as a whole. For instance, merger of two competing firms may lower the marginal cost of the combined firm in post merger period. Since the firm produces at lower marginal cost than before its efficient production may render better quality product or more output at same price or both for the consumers. Thus the social welfare is also increased because of this merger. In this light merger is good and antitrust laws do not put any obstacle in such amalgamation. A merger may also lead to increase in price and less output. A deadweight loss is attributed to the rise in price and lowering of output. Antitrust laws enforcement authority examines whether efficiency gains outweigh deadweight loss of a potential merger. If efficiency gains offset or more than offset deadweight loss of a merger plan then the court or antitrust law enforcement body nods affirmatively to such merger proposal. Otherwise, it throws cold water to merger plan. Those managed to get their merger deals passed the probing eyes of antitrust laws enforcement bodies did so by selling their efficiency gain's concept.

Bangladesh's mobile telecommunications industry is characterized by oligopoly: identical product and few operators. Previously six operators dominated the industry. Axiata's acquisition of Airtel and dissolution of Citycell reduced the number of operators to four. One does not have to be an expert to say competition is reduced because of merger. Are the consumers better off now than before? Coming back to it a little bit later.

Revenue Market Share of Mobile Operators.(Data Source: EBL Securities Limited)

In the USA, authority blocks merger or acquisition attempt if it leads to increase of market power of the merged firm. This market power is defined by firm's ability to set price above the price under perfect competition. One of the indirect measure of this market power is the share of the market. Often a market share of 50 percent is deemed low as market power if other firms can enter easily into the market and drive price lower to the competitive market. Unfortunately this is not easy in Bangladesh's mobile telecommunications service industry. Entry is not easy here. So any merger insinuates concentration of market power to merged company and thereby reduction in competition. EBL securities prepared an analysis for its clients about the mobile operators of Bangladesh. According to EBL Securities Limited, GrameenPhone and Robi own 43% and 33% of market share of active mobile internet subscribers respectively in September, 2018. In terms of revenue, GrameenPhone holds 58% of the market share whereas Robi holds 28% of the market share till the third quarter in 2018. Before 2016 when the merger between Airtel and Robi took place, Robi had 26% of the revenue market. Clearly Robi's revenue market share increased by 2% due to merger. Technically speaking a reduction in competition occurred.The body that supposed to look into this matter , Bangladesh Competition Commission, was formed in that same year. However, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission introduced Significant Market Player clause that allows it to impose restrictive measures to curb influence of a dominant market player.

Court in December 2018 also banned any hike in call rate. However call rate increased significantly since the merger of Airtel and Robi. Earlier 33 paisa/ minute was the lowest available call rate, now it is 77 paisa/ minute. When it comes to mobile internet data, BTRC intervened to raise the duration of all data packs to a minimum of one week. From my personal experience I can tell operators took off many offers following the instruction. For instance, data pack of 25 MB for 4 hours at Tk 5 literally disappeared. Data pack worth Tk 9 for 24 hours resulted in a duration of 72 hours. Consumers' cost on data pack has increased following reduction in competition. In addition, call drop crops up every now and then in the middle of conversation, prompting BTRC order to compensate subscribers in the event of call drop. Consumers in general do not receive more output from the leading operators let alone experience better service and products. Out of the blue this year we came to learn via Telenor website a negotiation was started to merge Axiata and Telenor in South Asia. However, Axiata underscored that Bangladesh operation is not part of the merger discussion. It is hilarious to hear such argument when operations of a significant market are about to come under one clutch and only one part will be left out. The merged company will have far more control on cost and thereby deeper influences on setting prices across different markets. This merger negotiation also laid bare to ridicule ability of our agencies to foresee such important amalgamation that has the potential to affect VAT and Tax revenue of the government struggling to finance development projects and social security programs.

Many subtle incidents also go unnoticed to the eyes of our antitrust bodies. For instance, selling of high value mobile phone sets or tabs at extended installments by mobile operators. This kind of practices deter competition among retailer shops and raise the costs for selling of such sets in the retail market. This tie-in sale practice has to be addressed in the Competition Act.

Another incident is to pick up exclusive multimedia content provider for entertainment contents. For instance, leading operators often inked exclusive deal with online entertainment service providers at a special fee or free of cost. This kind of exclusive deals raise entry barrier to other similar service providers and kill many budding companies. With the introduction of 4G , mobile operators play the role of windows to seamless internet service industry. In that service industry,  it cannot cut special deal with some clients ( entertainment service providers are operators ' clients) by depriving others. This subtle-competition-killer matter has to be taken into account by our antitrust authority in a bid to augment competition and welfare.

However, we have to acknowledge that the leading two mobile operators play a crucial role in bridging digital divide and educating poor and hard-to-reach community through their freebasics services at zero balance. The Facebook assisted freebasics allows one to browse internet without paying any fee.Obviously the two operators run this program as part of corporate social responsibility out of their own pockets.

But it should not be the reason to allow the merger of two operators who have significant subscriber base and market share. Government can sell another telecom license to a new willing company in combination with ailing one brings some foreign partner so that there is resurgence in competition in mobile telecom market. So far BTRC and the Court have taken the onus of enforcing competition and consumer rights in this market. In the coming months I hope Bangladesh Competition Commission under the auspices of parliament will take the lead in that end. Before that our Competition Act needs to be updated to address various forms of competition killing practices.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(22 février --- 1 mars)

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement bangladais s'est dit qu'il avait déjoué une tentative de détourner un vol de Biman Bangladesh Airlines, destiné à Dubaï depuis Chittagong. La force élite de l'armée de la terre a neutralisé le pirate qui possédait un revolver. La force élite de RAB s'est dit que le pirate présumé était déjà dans sa base-donné de criminel. En 2012, RAB l'a arrêté pour avoir abdiqué une femme. Tout le monde pose la question comment le pirate a évité la surveillance de l'aéroport et est monté à bord de l'avion.

Selon un reportage, les pompiers  ont trouvé un autre entrepôt clandestin des substances chimiques au sous-sol de Wahid Mansion où une incendie dans un entrepôt des eaux de toilette avait tué 78 personnes.

Selon un reportage, un ressortissant  de la Roumanie a été trouvé mort dans le logement d'une société de Tabac à Savar.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement bangladais a fermé 1500 comptes de Facebook dans 20 jours. Le gouvernement s'est dit que la plupart avaient été utilisés pour disséminer les nouvelles fausses.

Selon un reportage, 5 personnes de la même famille ont succombé à mort à  maladie mystérieuse à Thakurgaon. La maladie a ciblé leur village il y a deux semaine .

Plupart des élèves dans l'école bangladaise ont assez des difficultés à comprendre les cours, selon une étude de la Banque mondiale. Trois sur quatre étudiants n'ont pas pu craquer les problèmes mathématiques à dernier niveau de l'école primaire. 43% des élèves ont    assez des difficultés à répondre en Bangla aux questions.

Élection municipale de nord Dhaka a eu lieu. Le candidat du parti en exercice a remporté plupart des votes. L'opposition principale,déjà jeté le scrutin, l'a nommé une dérision. Je suis allé à bureau de vote au 11h du matin. J'ai découvert que seulement deux ou trois bulletins de vote ont été déposés. En général, le taux de participation était 29,13%, d'après un quotidien populaire.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(11 janvier --- 18 janvier)
Mon site https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com est encore bloqué au Bangladesh. Le 16 janvier pour 4 heures le blocage a été enlevé. A partir de minuit, le 17 janvier , mon site est bloqué pour deuxième fois. WordPress m'a répondu que mon site était bloqué au Bangladesh. Il n'avait pas de difficultés à voir mon site hors de mon pays.
Selon un reportage , TIB a détecté fraude électorale dans l'élection générale en 2018. Le Tsar de l'Anti Corruption a fait une étude à ce propos. Scrutin dans 47 conscription a été mis en question.
Selon un reportage, des ouvriers bangladais au Koweït ont assiégé l'ambassade de Bangladesh au Koweït en signe de protestation contre escroquerie par leur l'agence de recrutement.
Selon un reportage, 832 Rohingyas, dont 39 % sont des enfants âgés moins de 5 ans, sont tombés victimes de varicelle.
Selon un reportage, le gouvernement et patrons ont mis en fin la protestation par les ouvriers de confection. Des ateliers de confection ont licencié des ouvriers qui participaient à la protestation. Le plateforme de patrons BGMEA a préparé une base donné des ouvriers militants. Il se peut qu'ils ne trouvent pas de boulot dans atelier de confection.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(4 janvier --- 11 janvier)

Je ne suis pas arrivé à accéder à mon site https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com Il est encore bloqué au Bangladesh. J'ai déjà déposé une plainte dans la gendarmerie locale et notifié Cyber Crime Unit de la Police. Malheureusement, CCU et BTRC ont joué ignorant à ce propos. Ils ne savent pas qui l'a bloqué.

Selon un reportage, Ain O Salish Kendra a revendiqué que 466 personnes avaient été tuées extrajudiciairement en 2018, la  tuerie maximum par les forces de l'ordre dans 5 années. Par ailleurs, ASK s'est dit que 207 journalistes avaient été ciblées au Bangladesh en 2018, deux fois plus que le bilan de l'année précédente.

Selon un reportage, une Cour de Philippine a condamné une banquier à 56 ans de prison pour avoir participé à piratage de la Banque centrale de Bangladesh.

Selon un reportage, ouvriers de confection se sont insurgés contre discrimination de leur mensuel. Un ouvrier a été tué par balles. A cause de leur manif, il y avait grand embouteillages à Dacca. Le gouvernement et patrons ont calmé la situation en revalorisant le salaire. Mais la manifestation continue.

Selon un reportage, le Parlement indien a dit oui au projet de loi de nationalité qui met accent sur donner nationalité aux groupes persécutés des pays avoisinants.