By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was committed for an early commercial launch of Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) scheme, ensuring fulfillment of all technical parameters as defined in Third Party Service Provider (TPSP) license, related IM and subsequent clarifications.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) issued two TPSP licenses in 2018 to Virtual Remittance Gateway (VRG) (Pvt) Ltd and Digital Bridge (Pvt) Ltd (DBL) aimed to bring unbanked population into formal banking services, said a news release. However, it has been noted that VRG while violating the legal framework and license conditions, has started an ill-intended campaign in a section of media to malign the regulator and influence regulatory decisions.
To expedite availability of AMA scheme for general public, PTA provided all facilitation to TPSP licensees, through series of meetings and discussion spanned over several months to resolve the technical and financial issues between all stakeholders.
However, VRG instead of recognising the efforts of PTA, has tried to malign the regulator by publishing twisted facts. In fact, VRG has tried to put the burden of its own failures on the part of regulator. VRG has alleged in the media that PTA has delayed issuance of commencement certificate for commercial operations since Jan 2020, whereas SBP issued authorization to VRG for commercial launch on April 9.
As a consequence of SBP authorization and completing commercial agreement with mobile operator, VRG applied to PTA for commencement certificate on 4th August, 2020.
It is clarified that issuance of commencement certificate requires submission of commercial agreements by a TPSP licensee with all the Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs).
Since completion of pilot launch and inspection of VRG system in Jan 2020, PTA has repeatedly been urging VRG to expedite and submit commercial agreements for issuance of commencement certificate. However, VRG was unable to submit any commercial agreement since last six months until August 4, that too with only one operator i.e. Jazz. Even the agreement with Jazz is conditional on VRG’s agreements with other operators.
