Mobile credit retailers seek more returns

Cellphone credit retailers have urged mobile operators to increase their commissions to 10 percent from the existing 2.75 percent, claiming that the present rate does not bring in worthy business returns. A total of 25 lakh retailers load credit for 4.5 crore mobile phone users, on behalf of the six mobile operators. If a retailer loads Tk 2,000 a day, he will receive Tk 54 in commissions from sales, which amounts to Tk 1,620 a month, said Md Aminul Islam, president of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Load Businessmen Association (BMPLBA).

“How will a retailer run a business with earnings as low as Tk 1,620 a month?” Islam told a discussion at the Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday.

More than 80 percent of customers now prefer to load a mere Tk 10 to Tk 20 onto their mobiles at one time. The volume and amount of refill has come down, he said.

Retailers said the frequent free talk-time minutes offered with new connections by the mobile operators also lead to a decrease in refills.

The retailers purchase a desired “load amount” from an authorised mobile phone distributor and resell it to customers through a specialised SIM (subscriber identification module).

The BMPLBA president said: “In one sense, we are the main revenue earners on behalf of the mobile operators. But if you calculate what we actually get in return, it is nothing.”

Source: blogs.com.bd