KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress lawmaker and former Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet has claimed that the absence of telecommunications traffic monitoring and fraud control system (TERAMOX) technology in Nepal has resulted in an annual revenue fraud of Rs 25 billion.

Speaking during the special session of the House of Representatives on Friday, Basnet emphasized the significant financial losses due to the non-implementation of TERAMOX technology.

“TERAMOX technology controls call bypass activities (VoIP),” he stated, adding, “Globally, this technology has stopped call bypass fraud, but in Nepal, over RS 25 billion in revenue is lost annually due to such activities.”

Lawmaker Basnet further alleged that those benefiting from call bypass schemes have been influencing relevant authorities to prevent the adoption of TERAMOX technology.

“After the introduction of TERAMOX technology, those running call bypass schemes have lost sleep and have been trying to influence the concerned agencies,” he added ahead, “If TERAMOX is not the method to stop call bypass, then what is? I took the initiative to introduce this technology. Imagine how much those committing RS 25 billion fraud annually would spend to influence the agencies and divert the issue?”