The governments merciless levies have made the PTCL bills unbearable which are already augmented by the heaviest local call rates. It is two rupees per minute with an additional levy of around twenty percent.
Local calls to relations and friends in a house are pretty much common. The pulse rate charging local calls is based per two minutes (twenty minutes make it ten calls). This is a ploy deployed by the PTCL to bloat its heaviest profits. The matter of 1217 inquiry is also not different. It was a free service some years back but now it is being charged on per minute basis and the revenue of PTCL keeps rising till the call is answered by the inquiry person which may take sometime up to five minutes.
The practice is unbecoming of an organisation that has the highest number of customers in the country. It is basically coercion and the relevant authorities must take notice of it.
MARYAM IBRAHIM
Mirpur
