A telecom company had requested the LHC to term the tax unlawful.
The Supreme Court on Thursday declared the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) stay order against the said tax null and void, Express News reported.
The Supreme Court said that the tax case should be heard by the Competition Commission of Pakistan, and should be resolved in 15 days.
On October 25, 2012, the LHC - in response to an application filed by a telecom company - issued orders against the tax and declared it unlawful.
Consumers and a few telecom companies objected to the tax, claiming it increased the overall cost and burdened international callers.
However, the LHC order was challenged in the Supreme Court's Lahore registry.
A two-member bench of the apex court heard the case and nullified the LHC order.
Tax
The Ministry of Information Technology decided to impose tax on incoming international calls in order to amplify revenue and maintain parity in call rates. According to sources, the government will generate another $500 million each month through the imposition of this tax.
The government has also argued that grey-trafficking, which incurs it Rs23 billion in losses annually, will be eliminated with the imposition of this tax.
COMMENTS (19)
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Supremer Court, you keep on disappointing overseas Pakistanis. It seems High Court Judges are more close to People rather than SC judges. We will never support such dual standard judiciary who hates Overseas Pakistanis. Also Political parties have nothing to do with overseas as well.
Raise taxes on phone calls for poor Pakistanis trying to call home, not a problem! Raise taxes on the rich Pakistani elites who pay NOTHING now, not a chance!
Good decision, controlling grey traffic is the primary objective of the ICH. And for those who can't afford these rates for personal calls, haven't u heard of Skype or viber?
Competition commission is doing a good job, policy maker does not understand the higher they charge price the lower will be customer base and people will move to alternate options.
If they squeeze the margin the more people will call and also there is an element of social connection.
By keeping people away reduces emotional attachment.
It makes overseas Pakistanis lives more miserable. In this modern age they should make communication fast cheap and easier. It will in fact bring more social as well economic prosperity.
It really sucks ..... why should the overseas Pakistanis be spared when resident Pakistanis are getting screwed day in and day out ! ! !
It's a sort of tax which cannot be easily avoided / evaded, hence implementing it in a country like Pakistan, makes sense. Whether the additional tax collected will actually be used to benefit the general public, well that is another matter.
Imposition of tax on services is the prerogative of the government and it can not be challenged for the sake of increase in the cost) . SC is right.
This move will bring more revenue to the Government. I can give examples of myself and many other people around me. Before this tax we used spend around 2-3 thousand rupees on phone calls, because they were cheap and easy. Now everyone almost everyone uses Voip, with normal calls only for use in emergencies. Its a bit of a hassle to use voip but now we only spend a maximum of 500 Rs a month on phone calls.
Folks, look up OBi110.
If they are not even subsidising costs and facilitating pakistanis in the country, why would they do it for us living abroad? The "extra 500mil" might help the govt. buy another mercedes for its beloved ministers.
this is not tax ... this is increasing foreign incoming revenues and helping local telcos to earn profit that were near collapse and closing down, it is sustaining jobs.
I doubt the curbing of grey traffic though which will not happen till the top ministers involved in it are charged and prosecuted.
Its not tax. The higher prices go to LDI operators.
In my personnal view such tax will increase Call handling charges ie: increased revenue for all TELCOS in Pakistan, however cost of calls to Pakistan at origionating stations will be increased and will result in more GRAY incoming traffic in Pakistan.
yes impose more taxes cuz the billions sent by overseas Pakistani in remittance is not enough.
The people who are sending $15 billion every year are given an another blow. In UK Indian’s are calling India 1 pence per minute, Bangladeshis to Bangladesh 2-3 pence per minute. We Pakistanis were previously paying 5-6 pence which is now coming to 13 to 14 pence per minute. Why don’t these people understand that if you sky rocket the rates people will be more and more shifting towards Skype and Viber and there will be more loss to the economy. I for myself and many like myself have stopped using phone and is now on Skype or Viber.
This is terrifying. Overseas Pakistani are screwed. Govt. can earn more than (additional $500 million) if tax is reduced because people will call more and more... We used to call Pakistan for hours and hours and now everybody is using Skype rather. So its all failed plan to collect extra $500 million...