Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said he proposed additional duty on mobile phone services considering the affordability of the users.
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He defended his move at the post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka on Friday.
The minister proposed a 5 percent supplementary duty on mobile phone services, on SIM or RIM cards in his budget speech for FY 2015-16 placed in Parliament on Thursday.
Mobile-phone operators say the additional duty would raise costs of voice call and data transfer.
Answering questions from journalists, he said: “We’ve fixed a duty on mobile-phone talk-time. It (duty on mobile-phone services) is levied not only in Bangladesh, but in many other countries.
“There is huge growth in this sector. We’ve done it (imposition of duty) considering that they can pay it.”
Muhith said he had proposed to cut duty on mobile SIM or RIM card from Tk 300 to Tk 100.
Mobile-phone operators have welcomed the proposal but said the duty on mobile-phone services would affect use of information and communication technology and deter the growth in the sector.
Country’s largest operator Grameenphone already said in an SMS to its subscribers: “As per government decision, 5 percent supplementary duty has been imposed on mobile-phone use, which will be applicable for all sorts of services.”
Now a user has to pay 15 percent VAT.
The Cabinet on Mar 20 approved a draft law which provided for imposition of 1 percent surcharge on mobile-phone services.
According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, over 124.7 million people are now using mobile-phones in the country. The number of mobile internet users is 44.2 million.
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