June 27, 2021
The telecom industry on Saturday poked holes into the government's plan to tax people whose call duration goes past the five-minute mark.
The government plans on taxing such calls at Rs0.75 per five minutes.
The telecom industry has declared the proposed tax "unworkable" for the following reasons:
Minister for Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin while addressing a session of the National Assembly to discuss the budget, said that speaking over a mobile phone for more than five minutes will be taxed at 75 paisas, but there will be no tax on an SMS and mobile internet.
Initially, the Finance Bill 2021-22 had proposed a Re1 tax on each call if the duration exceeds three minutes, Rs5 tax for per GB usage of internet and 10 paisas on each SMS.
However, in a post-budget press conference, Tarin had clarified: "We are not doing it at this point in time."
He said the proposals had been opposed by the prime minister and the federal cabinet.