The National Board of Revenue on Tuesday sent a proposal to the finance ministry on imposing 1 per cent surcharge on mobile phone talk-time and other services for approval of the cabinet, officials said. They said that the ministry would soon place the summary for the cabinet meeting. The government will have to enact a law for imposing the surcharge as it is necessary for taking approval of the parliament for imposing any new tax, officials said.
So the proposal will be placed to the parliament after getting a nod from the cabinet, they said adding that the surcharge will come into effect after enacting the law.
According to NBR summary, the surcharge would be imposed on all mobile services including voice services, SMS and MMS services and internet and other services provided by the mobile operators.
Mobile users will have to pay the tax while mobile operators will collect it and pay to the government exchequer.
Currently, mobile users have to pay 15 per cent value-added tax for enjoying any mobile services provided by the operators.
Now, after the law is enacted, subscribers will have to pay additional 1 per cent for enjoying the services.
The proposed surcharge will be named ‘development surcharge’ and prime minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her intention in parliament that the fund to be generated through the move would be spent for development of the education sector.
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, however, in an instruction to the revenue board said that the money would be spent in poverty reduction in rural areas.
Revenue board officials said that they were responsible for just collecting the surcharge and the government would finally decide about its expenditure.
According to NBR estimate, the government may get around Tk 140 crore if 1 per cent surcharge is levied from the total turnover of the mobile phone sector.
The country’s around 11 crore subscribers spend around Tk 14,000 crore for getting services provided by the six mobile phone operators—Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Airtel, Citycell and state-owned Teletalk.
-With New Age input
