Several members of the Federal cabinet have opposed the 75 paisa tax on mobile phone calls lasting more than five minutes and asked the Finance ministry to abolish it.
Federal Minister of Information and Communications Technology Syed Amin-ul-Haq announced this on Thursday when he spoke about the signing of an agreement between the Universal Service Foundation (USF) and Jazz to provide high-speed mobile broadband services in the southern parts of the country. Punan in Multan and Hanival districts. …
The federal minister has assured representatives of the telecommunications industry that he is working to eliminate the tax on telephone calls, as it will also affect the common people and the industry.
He said in the budget briefing to the cabinet, the Ministry of IT raised the voice to remove the proposed tax on data and Calls. Moreover, Foreign Minister and other cabinet members supported the opinion of the Ministry of IT.
Unfortunately, in his speech to the Pakistani Senate on June 25, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin announced 75 paisas tax for more than five-minute calls.
Amin ul haq said: “In principle, I disagree. I had the courage to say this and discussed it with the Prime Minister. Finance Ministry said that we are discussing this and trying to remove the tax,” the minister said, adding that they are on the same wavelength with telecommunications.
During a speech at the end of the 2021-2020 budget, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that no new taxes on the internet and text messages be imposed, but mobile calls over five minutes are charged an additional 75 paisas.
Initially, the government announced that, in order to generate a reasonable income in the sector, it is proposed to levy a federal tax of one rupee on mobile calls in excess of three minutes, Rs. 0.1 for text messages in text messages, and Rs. 5 for Internet data usage per gigabyte. …
However, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar was heavily criticized by Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Cabinet of Ministers for a federal excise on Internet data.
He stressed that the FED was not included in the final draft budget submitted to parliament for approval.
It is estimated that the government’s decision to levy 75 paisa taxes on five minutes calls from a mobile phone will bring in 20-30 billion rupees.
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