Siliguri, June 16: Fresh connections and recharge vouchers, unavailable with BSNL agents, are selling on the black market.
Participating in a “Telephone Adalat” organised by the BSNL authorities, local residents said they had to fork out extra money to the touts to get a BSNL connection. The touts, they added, had created an artificial crisis in the market.
Dealers at the meet — an interactive session between the BSNL authorities, mobile and fixed line customers, and Internet subscribers — accepted that they had no clue as to how the SIM cards and recharge vouchers found their way into the open market.
“SIM cards and recharge vouchers are being sold at higher prices by touts posing as BSNL dealers,” alleged Moloy Chakraborty, an authorised dealer of BSNL’s CellOne service.
“As soon as the BSNL customer service centre runs out of recharge vouchers or forms for new connections, the touts come into the picture. They create an artificial scarcity of cards in the market,” he added.
“The touts are having a field day because the BSNL does not issue retailer licences and so, does not have an extensive network of retail outlets in the town.”
Dealers alleged that recharge vouchers and SIM cards for BSNL’s pre-paid service, Excel, were “freely” available even in neighbouring Nepal. BSNL signals are easily received in a couple of districts in eastern Nepal where, the dealers alleged, selling BSNL SIM cards and recharge vouchers is a thriving business.
Customers pay the touts anything between Rs 300 and Rs 500 for a SIM card that is actually priced at an activation charge of Rs 200. Customers also have to fork out Rs 100 to Rs 300 extra for the recharge coupons.
According to a dealer, the loopholes in the BSNL’s marketing policy helped the touts thrive.
“The telecom company has no control over the dealers of SIM cards or pre-paid vouchers. After distributing 50 per cent of the recharge vouchers among the dealers, it does not keep tabs on what they do with them,” said P. Ghosh, a consumer who attended the Telephone Adalat.
The rude behaviour of “some” of the employees at the customer service centre was also brought to the notice of the BSNL authorities.
“Whenever you call the customer care cell to register a complaint or ask for help, you are most likely to get a curt reply from an employee,” said a dealer present at the meet.
Questioned whether they were aware of the racket, the telecom authorities said they could not comment on the matter without looking into the allegations of the subscribers.
“We have received written complaints that BSNL SIM cards and recharge coupons are being sold on the black market at a higher price by touts. But we cannot comment on this without verification,” general manager of BSNL, Siliguri Telecom District, Goutam Chakraborty said. “We are trying to probe the facts. We have taken a strong note of the allegations levelled by the agents and the customers.”
“We will deal with the ill-behaved employees of the customer care cell,” he added.
Chakraborty said BSNL has set up 41 trans-receivers in the district to put an end to the congestion problem faced by its customers.
“We have sorted out the problems of line congestion caused by the increasing number of subscribers,” he said, adding that the district now had around 14,000 mobile subscribers with 10,000 using the pre-paid service.
