ISLAMABAD:
The government’s decision to impose a hefty tax on incoming telephone calls from overseas caused a heated debate in the upper house of parliament with senators belonging to both sides of the aisle categorically rejecting the tax as a burden on overseas Pakistanis, on Friday.
Senators belonging to the ruling alliance, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), brought the attention of the house through an attention notice.
During the deliberations, leader of the opposition Senator Ishaq Dar criticised the government for its failure to tackle grey trafficking. Alleging that some cabinet members were involved in the illegal business, the senator said that the exchequer suffered a loss of 200 million dollars a year due to grey trafficking.
Calling the tax a conspiracy and alleging corruption, other members of the house, including Senators Kamil Ali Agha of PML-Q and Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of MQM called for the immediate withdrawal of the government decision.
Raza Rabbani asked the chairman to refer the matter to the relevant standing committee and opined that all regulatory authorities, including Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), should be under parliamentary control to ensure greater accountability.
Chairperson of the senate standing committee, Kulsoom Parveen informed the house that the committee was cognizant of the matter and was scheduled to discuss the tax in its upcoming meeting on October 18.
The leader of the house, Jahangir Badr revealed that the decision of imposing the tax had been taken by the IT ministry so as to bring parity between calls made from Pakistan and those coming from abroad.
He added that PTA officials had informed him that the authority had only implemented the decision.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2012.
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We have already been paying increased tax to companies here from 1st of october, on the basis that pakistani government have increased the tax. The call charges per minute have been increased three and a half folds. (e.g from 2 to 7 pence a minute, and that's the cheapest of all)