Telcos start cutting 1.0pc talk-time usage surcharge

Doulot Akter Mala and Ismail Hossain | Published: March 11, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The government-slapped one per cent surcharge on mobile phone talk-time usage has been effective from Wednesday.
Cell-phone operators have started deduction of the 1.0 per cent surcharge from the subscribers' talk-time on the day. From now on, mobile phone users have to pay Tk 1.0 on every Tk 100 talk-time.
Value Added Tax (VAT) Wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will collect the surcharge from the operators. The collected surcharge will be non-tax revenue that would be spent on development of education and health in the country.
The Internal Resources Division (IRD) under the Ministry of Finance issued a gazette, dated March 8, in this regard on Wednesday. Â
The surcharge will be payable on services through use of Subscribers' Identity Module (SIM) card, Removable User Identification Module (RUIM) or similar microchip cards or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) without card. Mobile or fixed wireless phone operators will have to pay the surcharge by collecting from subscribers.
In March 2015, the cabinet gave final approval to the Development Surcharge and Levy Act 2015, keeping the provision of charging 1.0 per cent surcharge on mobile phone usage.
VAT officials said the government will earn Tk 1.40 billion non-tax revenue from the one per cent surcharge.
Mahmud Hossain, head of corporate affairs of Grameen phone (GP), said the company has started deducting one per cent surcharge from the mobile phone talk-time.
A senior official of Banglalink said they have also started deduction of the surcharge from Wednesday.
However, Ekram Kabir, vice president of communications and corporate responsibility of Robi Axiata Limited, said they are yet to receive copy of the gazette to cut the tax from mobile phone users.
"We did not receive any copy of the gazette. Without instruction of the government, we cannot impose burden on the subscribers," he added.
Momtaz Zaman, a subscriber of Banglalink, said one per cent surcharge on mobile phone use is tolerable for users.
"We are ready to pay Tk 1.0 on every Tk 100 talk-time. But the money should be spent in a transparent way in development of education and health," she said.
The total number of mobile phone subscribers is above 130 million in the country. The cell-phone users have been paying 15 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on their use.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com, bdsmile@gmail.com