The verification process of Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) through Biometric Verification System (BVS) lost pace after the deadline for verification of SIMs was extended. Official sources revealed to Business Recorder that to date 68.7 million SIMs were verified through BVS against 53 million CNIC and about 10.8 million SIMs were disowned/blocked.
By February 25, about 62.74 million SIMs were verified through BVS while around 10.4 million were disowned/ blocked, which shows that only 6.2 million SIMs were verified in the last two weeks against 1.5 million SIMs verification per day before the deadline of February 26.
However, official sources revealed that there would be no extension in the extended deadline given by the Interior Ministry and all SIMs needed to be verified, otherwise un-verified SIMS would be blocked after April 14, 2015. The government and cellular industry had reportedly reached an understanding on extension of the deadline for blocking SIMs. It is said that the un-verified SIMs would be blocked in phases. However after getting extension, the number of subscribers verifying their SIMs declined significantly.
Sources said that the concerned authorities are likely to meet in next two to three days to review the policy and may take stringent measure to speed up the verification process. It was decided between the government and cellular operators that not a single SIM would be automatically blocked despite the expiry of given deadline for first phase of SIM re-verification ie February 26. It was further decided that after the expiry of initial deadline mobile operators would send SMS to customers with a specific time period for re-verification of SIM and in case of failure the SIM would be blocked later. However, two weeks have passed but the process of sending SMS or alert is yet to start.
The concerned authorities were expecting huge losses, besides rush at service centers, franchises and retail outlets to verify their SIMs in case of blocking all un-verified SIMs after the expiry of deadline and the decision of phase-wise blocking.
Meanwhile, the high ups of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) claimed significant decline in grey trafficking, besides reduction in voice call rates for overseas Pakistanis, after the withdrawal of International Clearing House (ICH) policy. The government on February 27 withdrew ICH policy, besides brining the Access Promotion Contribution (APC) to Universal Service Fund (USF) to zero which helped in eliminating grey trafficking, besides voice call rate declining from Rs 8.8 per minute to a minimum of rupee one only for overseas Pakistanis.
According to the officials, grey trafficking was causing about $300 million loss to the national exchequer per annum, besides posing serious security threats. The government wants to deal the menace with iron hand and would not show any leniency in this regard.
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