The government has imposed a tax of 75 paisas on mobile calls that exceed five minutes.
During the wind-up Budget speech 2021-2022, the Minister for Finance, Shaukat Tareen, said that there will be no tax on the Internet and SMS, but a tax of 75 paisas will be charged on mobile calls that are longer than five minutes. He added that there will be zero tax on information technology firms.
The telecom sector taxes have been a contentious issue for the government since the announcement of the budget two weeks ago. The government had initially announced that in order to reap reasonable revenue from this sector, federal excise on mobile phone calls exceeding three minutes at Rs. 1 per call, SMS messages at Rs. 0.1 per SMS, and internet data usage at Rs. 5 per GB is being proposed.
However, after facing severe criticism, the Minister for Energy, Hammad Azhar, said last week that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Cabinet “did not approve” federal excise duty on internet data. He assured that the duty will not be included in the final draft of the Finance Bill that has been put before the Parliament for approval.
However, the last update, according to Minister Tarin’s speech today, is that 75 paisas tax is applicable on mobile calls that exceed five minutes.
Courtesy: Pro Pakistani