The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee has asked whether taxes on mobile phones were being reduced.
However, the PTA chairman clarified that the PTA does not collect taxes on mobile phones.
He said that even as PTA chairman, he does not know how much tax is charged on each mobile phone.
He further shared that a subcommittee was formed under the leadership of Naveed Qamar at the request of a member of the National Assembly. The member had claimed that taxes on mobile phones go as high as 66 percent of the phone’s price.
According to the PTA chairman, the subcommittee is working on reducing mobile phone taxes. However, he added that PTA was not included in this committee.
During a recent meeting, the Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) revealed that the authority received Rs. 2 billion from a company last month. He said the amount was immediately transferred to the Ministry of Information Technology.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Universal Service Fund (USF) informed the committee that Rs. 60 billion had accumulated in the fund. He said this amount was collected in 2013–14 but remained unspent.
He added that the federal government later took this amount from the USF. According to the CEO, the government still owes Rs. 42 billion to the fund.
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