ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman has expressed grave concerns over heavy taxation on telecom sector and asked the government to rationalise taxes on the sector.
Anusha Rehman, while talking to media after addressing a workshop, said that along with the Centre, the provincial governments also imposed heavy taxes on telecom sector, which is negatively impacting the telecom business. She said access to broadband services in the country was three percent before the launch of 3G/4G services, which is now around 15 percent.
The State Minister said that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been asked to work out the taxation ratio during 2013 to make a comparison of the industry growth during the regime of heavy taxation and before the taxation.
Earlier, addressing the workshop on “Driving Sustainable Long Term Growth in Telecom Sector in Pakistan,” organised by GSM Association, Anusha Rehman said that the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications was devising clear-cut programs to translate telecom development into measurable socio-economic benefits of nation. In this direction, she said that a team has been to work on a strategy to achieve development targets including projected figure of additional employment creation to tune of 900,000 in next six years while targeting 20% broadband penetration and equivalent real GDP growth in next five years.
