ISLAMABAD: The telecom companies paid Rs 50,576 million tax to the government during the previous fiscal year.
Presently, the telecom companies deduct a number of taxes from the mobile phone subscribers, including withholding tax and income tax under section 236 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 at rate of 14%.
Similarly, federal excise duty (FED) is collected at the rate of 18.5 percent from the subscribers if the service is availed in Islamabad Capital Territory. Moreover, Provincial sale tax is levied and collected by the respective provinces at 19.5 percent in case of Punjab, KPK and Balochistan and at the rate of 19 percent if the service is availed in any of the provinces.
However, a well placed source at Federal Board of Revenue told Customs Today that telecom companies were declaring losses in their tax returns are showing declare taxable income and they prefer to pay minimum tax or alternate corporate tax only.
“This state of affairs is despite the fact that mobile companies were flourishing day by day and no mobile company had been declared as bankrupt so far. On the contrary, more mobile phone operators are willing to invest in Pakistan due to lucrative mobile phone industry” the source added.
The source further said that telecom companies had also got adjusted income, withholding and FED in billions.
An official document available with this scribe shows the details of amount of tax adjusted by different telecom companies for the Tax Year 2015. These companies paid Rs. 5,994 Million as minimum tax under income tax.
Similarly, amount of tax adjusted by telecom companies under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 was Rs43,314 million. Moreover, a huge amount of Rs1,268 million was adjusted as sales tax and federal excise duty in the fiscal year 2015-16.
