As reported in yesterday’s post on ProPakistani, In the Federal Budget 09, Govt has imposed 20 Paisa tax per SMS, thus killing all those attractive SMS Bundle offers from various cellular services. This new tax is to be imposed from July 1st. Lets analyze how capable is the govt and if finance officers who suggested this tax imposition on SMS, ever thought of those projects that were based on cellular text messages.
Will this new tax kill SMS bundle packages only? So whats the big Deal? The answer is ‘NO’ not only the Bundle Packages, but it is the deliberate attempt to stop the flow of information. Like in the current scenario; where and whenever a news takes place, the information is passed on to the thousands of people through SMS. Remember the Long March Revolution? Where the main source of information flow among the activists and civil society was SMS. This was possible because of those cheap and competitive unlimited SMS packages.
The Govt. might feel being very clever after this move of attempting to stop information, and on the creation of new revenue stream, but one should be thoughtful that the creativity in the IT and Telecom based start-ups is also overlooked.
This tax imposition didn’t only kill the SMS bundle packages, but it has also killed the source of those creative startups based on SMS services. The examples of such startups can be Chopaal.pk, iSMS.pk, Facebook SMS App etc that are entirely SMS based and with this much tax per SMS, it will be impossible to keep up with such creative start-ups.
Not only the existing startups, but all those upcoming SMS based startups will be greatly discouraged and ignored. And if we have a look into the SMS scenario of other countries, developed, developing and even least developed countries have SMS bundle packages.
So I am shocked, extremely disappointed with this new anti-tech budget. We can judge very well that how much our rulers are educated, capable and literate.
That was all made clear in yesterday’s post. The problem is will any teleco take action on it by going to Supreme court? Coz only supreme court can overtake IMF’s this effect on Govt. Policy.
Yes
But Govt not imposed Tax where from Asif Zardari and Other Earn
Well…it is surely a bad news for all the tennagers because we people always prefer the cheapest mode of communication which is just the SMS Service these days…
Our government must look forward to this issue because if this tax is implemented then surely the teenagers will protest and as per the ongoing conditions of our country, there can no peaceful protest take place in any part of the country…
i request the Propakistani team to kindly contact the government officials on the behalf of teenagers so that our SMS Packages may not be finished because this will be a BIG LOSS for the cellular networks as well as for the whole Nation…
Regards,
Azeem Ikramzai
MULTAN
0314-6153999
This indeed is a clever (not) move by “Authority” (enuf said). “Those” widely circulated SMSes had actually offended a few political figures and this is the result.
A few took leverage and now all of us will suffer.
It’s good now no body will send the SMS to Wrong Numbers..SMS are Expensive in Every country.. it is good news..
And isnt it good that Nor they will send to Right numbers? I guess you dont know what you’re talking about. See the bigger picture pal! What if there is some big news that you want to share with all your friends? Are you literally gonna send 500 SMS to your list, knowing the new cost? Now consider this situation, your Mobile was lost but you had those numbers saved on PC or internet (like me) now you want to inform all of them that you lost yr mobile and your new number is now Blah blah blah, how on earth will you inform them? SMS? that will cost you a lot ! so?
There can be number of situations, where you desperately wants to share something with your friends! Plz do think about it!
And accept my sincere apologies if i offended you in any way, as it was not intended!
Many Boys and girls are just westing there time and money on Sending SMS now they will give this time to there study.. So it is good for our nation..
lol buddy i m quite disappointed to read what you’ve said. How can u assume that they are now gonna spend that time on their studies? Only if you know what i mean!
Farhan, i strongly agree. This is just to stop the fast flow of information and also the ZARDARI related fact based SMS.
U quoted a best example of the long march, when they blocked the service. This can only be done by an illeterate Government, like ours.
And the lady, the budget presenter dont even know the basic terms of budgeting and finance.
I completely agree wid you part from what you said about the lady as i didnt watched it so i cant comment on that.
I think, Govt will surely hv to to take its descion back!
Lets See What Happened?
I am at a loss of [(very) bad] words to react to this decision.
I wanted to follow up Dawn news, because that is the only Pakistani news channel I have, and do appreciate the way they cover the news. I saw few of the post budget talks and stopped watching.
The current government are a bunch of incapable beggars who only know how to increase their personal wealth. These people only think about their five years how can they grab more and more of the public money into their personal account, and top of it one of the most corrupt is President. These Politician are such inhumane that they even are doing corruption on the charity of the IDP.
There is no accountability, and there is no sign that it shall be in near future.
Mr. Asif Zardari has become of the richest people in Asia by looting peoples money and his appetite is not fulfilled and still begging.
These bunch of hooligans want the honest people to pay for electricity thefts instead try to find the ways to minimize theft.
The fact is there are hardly anything positive about the present government, even the army operation is not their decision. It was inevitable to do, they had no other choice. The only credit goes to army for conducting the operation.
if the rate of one sms is rupees 1.21(including current tax)
then what will be the rate of one sms incluing 20% tax?
plz calculate it and give me the answer.
i thnik all da companies shud jointly report it to da supreme court
I see no problem if they charge SMS fees from companies rather than the consumers. But we have to now that we were living even before SMS es. One thing that is often overloooked in our budgetsa and taxes is differential taxes. Only when reaches about the certain amount, person should be taxed for “Abusing” the utility. Same should go for taxing everything…..
Guys, prevailing information is not a problem without sms. It’s not something that we started getting in touch with others after these sms bundle packages started. We did this before as well. Losing your cell phone and informing your contact persons or changing your phone number is done once in a life time or even never. And if such thing happens, it’s not costly by spending 20-30 rupees to inform your contacts (in response to maddy). There are so many sources through which you can transform information. I am quite sure whoever is against this decision, he/she must be in a relation with someone and needs to communicate with him/her. I understand their feelings but AUR BHI GHAM HAIN ZAMANAY MAIN MOHABBAT K SIWA. Just wake up and reach your destination of life in time before it’s too late. 95% teens in pakistan are making worse use of mobile phones. If not sure about it, just google a few surveys on USE OF MOBILE PHONES IN PAKISTAN and you will get the answer! I am tired of receiving lots of jokes, poetry and questionnaires via sms from my friends. This is what you call important information or just information? This is ridiculous!!! We need to be out of it.
I agree with you, Imran. You are so right!!!
I completely agree with Imran. Our youth is misusing sms. And it has nothing to do with the flow of information. There are a lot of other ways to communicate. And if the information is so important than you can spend some money. I know many friends of mine who proudly told me that they are sending above 300 sms daily. And these sms are just lame jokes. Wake up. Dont waste your time on these things. We have many battles to fight. We need our energy flow in positive directions. Terrorism on the name of our religion Islam, is the current issue. We have to make our country Pakistan, the best country in the whole world. We have to make out nations the best nation. And we are already out of time. So please do something positive in your spare time.