After the imposition of 20 paisas tax on SMS, i have witnessed quite ferocious remarks about it. People in general, here on ProPakistani didn’t welcome it. Some of them are calling on to even contact Supreme Court about it; while some are saying that Telecom Companies should not accept it. But keeping the close eye, i don’t see that would happen in any case.
Look, Telecom companies are not going to be on Your Side on this one. The tax imposed didn’t effect them at all. It effected the End-users, The Consumers. Telecom companies were happy that they got relaxation somewhere around (in form of SIM Activation tax and GST). So, they would not try to pressurize government over the issue.
They are here to minch money, not to stand by its customers. In reality, the telecom companies are getting 8% as revenue from SMS. So, its nothing compared to rest to 92%. Most of the revenue they get is via Calls. In shot, So, don’t expect Telcos to stand by.
(by the way, in my personal perception, this 20 paisas tax is imposed with consent of telcos, and they taken in trust prior to the decision, in my perception, i have no evidence of this though)
The SMS packages targeted market was University/College guys n guls. And they they happen to be the main hit of this decision. The rural area of our country and Working people (Job walas) are not target market. The later prefer calling than texting. The elders prefer calling than texting. The fruit wala prefer calling than texting. So, basically this won’t effect the general audience at large.
I don’t stand for the government on this one. But this is reality dear. Governments here always minch money from middle and lower class in shape of indirect taxes. Keeping in view the earlier statement of Rehman Malik , that we can ban Sms if we want to, we were expecting such kind of action from the government as they think this will stop funny and malicious message campaign against government.
Just on the lighter side, Government has announced plots in DHA Swat. So, if you want to get one, please contact 111-ZARDARI
(Thanx Dr. Awab for this one)
Update: SMS tax has been taken back by government of Pakistan
ya its also good in my point of view
Hi,
I personally think 20 paisas isn`t a big issue. when djuice was launched its sms cost 23 paisas and sim were selling like HOT cakes. Relax all as sms will be 21 or 22 paisay atmost.
It was march 2006, people never experienced the free or unlimited sms offers. All telcos were offering sms @rs1/sms.
Also how can u say it will be 21 or 22 paisa. Govt tax0.20+19% GST+ Cell operator charges. It will deffinately reduce SMS usage. Do you think companies offer free SMS k govt tax do aur sms kro?? Kindly think it again. Thanks
u r rit, they will never stand for the customers.
Yes, I knew that telecos are in advantage at end. Now if they earn Rs. per day for 500 SMS, they will now earn Rs. 5-10 at least with usage upto Rs. 50 in many cases per day, because no one can give up this habit below that point.
Also the best advantage that telecos got is that competition between them over SMS got slashed, since no one can go below 20 paisa, Now their SMS rates might be v.much alike.
Now, telecos might start giving Delivery reports again and their network congestion will reduce too.
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.
1rupee +0.20 paisa tax thn impose overall tax of 19 %…tht is 1.42…..n if v send 50 msgs per day tht would b 70 rs per day n 2100 rs per month…..
ok government cant stop us v can find new ways…!!!
Hmmm…..Really are there any other ways that can be used on the Go?
n thn government would find another way in it to earn money from u….
Is this Tax gonna be aplied on MMS too?
Yeah, same question in my mind. Cuz sms and mms are totally different things (technincally)
Not going to comment and argue on this topic, I would have to find some alternative / cheaper was to continue smses or any other way around. let’s see how and what happens.
But, I beleive that more than 50% of sms traffic will be cutted by this act of our lovely government:)
SMS traffic will be cut but not SMS revenue. And, at end only SMS revenues matter to both Govt. and Telecos.
Since now you enjoy 500 sms for Rs.3.63 Max. per day but from now onwards our usual spending on SMS will increase mush more from Rs.3 for just replying messages and we can’t help stopping that too.
So, traffic will go down but not the revenues.
And to add it, SMS traffic decrease would also help telecos in overcoming network congestion too.
Contrary to what you write Hidden Eyes, telcos are fighting back and are unhappy with the 20 paisa tax. Read Jawwad Rizvi’s story in today’s The News: Cellphone operators criticise tax on SMS, seek withdrawal http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=183142
Dear Rafay! i donot think this tax will be applied for MMS too, Awais Perception is absolutely right MMS and SMS is technically Different Things.
It is a deliberate attempt to stop the flow of information. Where and whenever the event take place the information is passed on thousand of people through SMS. This is possible only because of cheap and competitive unlimited SMS packages offered by different telcos.
I don’t know whether it will effect cell phone companies or not but it will definitely effect the consumers who are forced to stop inexpensive mode of communications. Thanks to Shaukat Tareen
Zardari1s government are anouncing the ways to extract money from middle and lower classes,we are already payng app Rs.36 tax on every Rs.100 recharge.except warid.
There are no securities and assurance for the forign investors in Pakistan in Teleconm Sector But there are new taxes……….
Being an end user we just suffer ……..
SMS revenue will be down for telecoms becase that 20 paisa is going to be in government pocket.
Let’s just wait and watch what happens.
Eventually it will not benefit anyone as the usage will decrease dramatically, neither government nor operators. At the end poor consumers will get effected.
20 paisa isn’t enough to stop people. There should be a 5 rupees of tax on each text message.
yes u r 100% right!thats only way to stop these non-sense people
yeah why fuss abt it?atleast ppl who LOVE to sms random peopel and wake them up at 6am by sending “GOODMORNING” shitty texts will hav to pay extra 20 paisas from now on…very gud
they shud make the sms more expensive than call…then c the change in academic records of young boys n girls
and anyways this way we shall be first country in world where there is TAX ON SMS (tax besides GST)
This will reduce the SMS revenue earned by Telecom Operators. Each sms sent will be with 20 Paisas tax on it. Even at the lowest point the SMS would be for 21 Paisas which means a great reduction in SMS traffic. At 21 Paisas, 20 Paisas go to the government and leave 1 Paisa for Telecom Operators. Even just thinking about themselves, they lose mass profit.
this is bullcrap simply bullcrap for thos who are sms lovers.
Sign for peace for those who are randomly attacked by sms-bombers =D
For me , this is a bit bad because i used to send sms for general coversaton. But now i hope they remove this tax or atleast reduce it to 5 paisa or 10..15 paisa for our easiness.
O yes poor will b affected badly. They rely on sms packages to stay intouch with others but now, where will they go…? Yes!! Nowhere, they will suffer like they used to in past =D .
Gratz to government for the profit they will make and 1000x THUMBSDOWN
I wonder why it is SMS of all the things,
it looks like it has been specifically targeted
the increase is blatantly deliberate.
Lol SMS was the only cheap thing left in Pakistan btw. What a shame its gone up too. They cant see us happy can they.
Atleast if we had no food we could text to keep ourselves busy but oh well.
This move is being pushed by one operator only who is not offering any bulk SMS package, having most number of subscribers their network could not support when they offered bundle package. However, this will affect them also.
Pakistan was the most cheapest as far as rates are concerned.
who care’s … MMS zindabad … soon … (I mean in 2-3 months) we’ll get used 2 MMS … coZ as U said end users are we (Students & TeenAger) not Fruit wala or any other … so, i think students and teenagers are much aware of MMS and they’ll soon got addictid to MMS … n forget boring life of SMS … !!!
healthy move towards technology … !!!
thnx 2 Gov. :)
)sori if there are mistakes in my english(
:P