The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication observed on Thursday that cellular companies are overcharging their subscribers and possibly evading taxes.
“Cellular companies are charging their subscribers for one minute while giving them airtime of 45 seconds instead 60 without their knowledge,” said PPP Senator Rubina Khalid at a meeting called to discuss tax collection by the government from mobile companies.
PTI Senator Syed Shibli Faraz said that taxes should be higher to discourage users from “talking endlessly over the phone”.
In his attempt to pacify the committee, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) compliance and enforcement member, Abdul Samad, explained that the issue of lesser airtime was raised for the first time. “An audit will be done and a report will be presented to the members on the matter,” he said.
Senator Khalid also believed that cellular companies were evading taxes on prepaid cards.
“For example, cellular companies deduct about Rs15 in tax when a subscribers recharges his/her account with a Rs 100 prepaid card. We do not think that deducted amount is going into government accounts.”
Ministry of IT’s Member Telecom Mudassir Hussain explained to the committee members that tax collection was the domain of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The government responses failed to satisfy the committee who argued that the government had no mechanism to tally the deducted amount on prepaid cards against taxes submitted with the government.
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