(Bloomberg) -- Telenor ASA's Bangladesh unit was ordered by the country's Supreme Court to pay 20 billion taka ($235.6 million) to the nation's regulator, the latest step in a long-running dispute, a lawyer for the company said.
Sunday's order doesn't resolve the case, which involves Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission seeking 125.8 billion taka from the unit, Grameenphone Ltd., the lawyer, Sharif Bhuiyan, said by phone.
A panel of judges asked the industry regulator to refrain from issuing demands to the telecom operator. Still, it said that the moratorium would be lifted if Grameenphone failed to pay the 20 billion taka within the stipulated three-month period.
Dhaka-based Grameenphone, one of Norwegian phone company Telenor's Asian businesses, said in April it had received a notice with claims that it owes 84.94 billion taka to BTRC and 40.86 billion taka to the National Board of Revenue. Shares of Bangladesh's most valuable company have slid about a fifth since then.
The company contested the claims, made on the basis of audit findings from 1997 to 2014.
“The audit report is incorrect and any attempt to collect money on the basis of such audit should stop,” Grameenphone said in a statement on Nov. 14.
To contact the reporter on this story: Arun Devnath in Dhaka at adevnath@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Ville Heiskanen
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