Taxes on Mobile Cards are Not Coming Back (For Now)

After a landmark decision by Supreme Court of Pakistan earlier this month, mobile phone users in Pakistan have been enjoying tax-free mobile loads and calls for all cellular networks in Pakistan for past two weeks now.

This tax suspension was supposed to remain in place for 15 days but now we are getting reports that taxes on mobile phones will remain suspended for another few days until a new order is passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

According to confirmation received by ProPakistani, taxes on mobile card loads will remain suspended till the next order, a hearing for which is scheduled during the next week.

Not to mention, it is very likely that some taxes will remian suspended after the next decision — but nothing can be said with certainty as of yet.

Background

Mobile customers used to pay at least 25% of their money in taxes / charges at the time of card load. Then there was another 18.5% general sales tax on each call taking the total toll of deductions to around Rs. 40 on a Rs. 100 card.

These taxes / charges included:

  • At the time of load:
    • Withholding tax: 12.5%
    • Service Charges from telecom companies: 8-10%
  • Taxes on each call
    • GST: 17% in capital while 19.5% in provinces

Supreme Court, in a suo moto case, decided to suspend all taxes and service charges starting from June 13th, 2018. The premier court said that withholding tax shouldn’t be applied on everyone as not every mobile phone user comes under tax net and hence it can’t be applied on every subscriber.

 

Court — in its last hearing — had asked FBR to submit proposals on how it plans to tax mobile phone users, in a manner that non-taxable individuals won’t have to pay the withholding taxes.

Losses to Government and Telecom Companies

As one may imagine, mobile phone companies and government had to bear loss amounting to billions of rupees after the decision.

PTA data shows that telecom company made around Rs. 370 billion per year or around Rs. 1 billion per day during 2016-17.

Based on these figures, suspension of around 10% service charge would mean that telcos lost around Rs. 100 million per day or Rs. 2 billion during past 20 days. If suspended forever, telecom companies will lose around Rs. 37 billion per year.

Similarly, the federal government collected around Rs. 51 billion under the head of withholding tax from cellular customers during 2016-17. Based on last year’s data, the federal government would have incurred a loss of Rs. 2.8 billion during past 20 days. If suspended forever, the government is set to lose some Rs. 51 billion per year due to the decision.


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GST was third element that was suspended on June 13th, 2018 — which is likely to come back after next hearing — provincial government would have lost around Rs. 3 billion during the period of 20 days.

What’s Next?

While we don’t know what proposal FBR will submit to the Supreme Court or what decision the highest court will make, here is what we think is going to happen:

  • Services charges are likely to be gone forever. This means a Rs. 37 billion loss to telcos, that they are going to recover by jacking up the prices in near future.
  • Withholding tax is likely to not to come back or may not be deducted in its current shape.
  • GST is going to stay

This actually means that mobile customers are going to get Rs. 100 when they will load a card — just as now — but every call will be charged with GST, that will go to provinces.

It must be mentioned here that next hearing is scheduled for around Tuesday/Wednesday next week and FBR has reportedly prepared a proposal for submission in the Supreme Court.

Expect an update on this by next week.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • Have observed that Zong is making money after this suspension of taxes decision. Zong is charging now actual rate + all the taxes and enjoying. So it also should be noticed. Regards

    • Zong mbb gave me extra 35GB this month with on same 2500 wala package, also they gave 75GB instead of 65GB.

    • yea they are fooling people, the benefit is not reaching to the people, instead this tax suspension has only caused harm to the government and telecos are enjoying extra charges,
      this should be reported to the supreme Court

    • The Package charges for UFONE, JAZZ or ZONG have not changed. Before they included Taxes, now the whole amount is going to Service Provider. So, you are right, Carriers made money with this decision, though Users also saved on Service Charges and Taxes that are deducted at the time of balance load (exception would be UFONE Super Cards, which should have seen price reduction if the spirit was followed).

      • Jazz ne kisi bhi package me na to extra resources add kiye hei or na hi tax kam kiya hei in ki sb offer same old rates pr chal rahi hei?

  • Mujhy yeh baat samajh nahi aati ky ba’az Mulk ky be had kher’khwah khazana lootnay aur itni corruption par chup bethy rehty hain lekin jab ham jaisy ko thorra sa faida hota hai to Mulk ky nuqsaan ki fikr parr jati hai, jaisy wo apny tax sy zyada apni jaib sy bhi tax dety hon :-) …… Khuda keliye unsy tax lia jaye jo actuall mulk ky dushman hain, yeh Cards, calls, msgs par paid tax Khazanay mein nahi jany wala!!

  • Jazz jo pkg 14 rupy mein deta tha ab 20 ka ho gya.. 380 wala 499 ka.. farq kiya para ? Companies ki moj ho gai ulta

  • Telenor me 200 wala package 170 ka hogaya easycard600 me 1500 minutes,mbs,sms thy ab wo 2000 hogay 100 rupay me 750 mb atay thy ab wo 1500 hogay 250 me 3GB Data tha ab 250 me 4GB Data hogya.


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