Suren J Amarasekera, the managing director of the Ncell Private Limited, has resigned from his post, according to sources at the telecom company.

Amarasekera notified Ncell employees this week that he was stepping down from his post citing personal and family reasons and Friday was his last day in office, one Ncell official familiar with the development told the Post.

Amarasekera was appointed the managing director of the private telecom service provider in July 2017, a year after Ncell came under the majority ownership of the Malaysia-based Axiata Group Berhad following the acquisition of TeliaSonera’s stake in the company.

The resignation of the company's top official comes weeks after Ncell’s tax dispute reached the Supreme Court as well as the International Centre for the Settlement of the Investment Disputes in Singapore, following the decision by the Large Taxpayers Office to make the telecom company pay Rs.39.06 billion in capital gains tax.

Last week, the Supreme Court continued an earlier interim order barring the Large Taxpayers Office from collecting the dues it had determined after Ncell filed a writ challenging the procedure adopted and the amount determined by the tax authority.

Axiata also notified its shareholders on April 26 that its subsidiaries—Axiata, UK and Ncell—had filed a request for arbitration at the Singapore-based settlement centre, claiming that Nepal’s conduct with regards to the capital gains tax contravenes international law obligations under the Bilateral Investment Treaty between the two countries.

However, Ncell officials who spoke to the Post said the dispute over the tax dues have nothing to do with Amarasekera’s resignation and insisted that he stepped down strictly due to personal reasons.

Before joining Ncell in Kathmandu, Amarasekera had worked as the strategic project's director for Axiata Group Berhad’s corporate headquarters in Malaysia, focusing on key group initiatives across its South Asian operations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.