ISLAMABAD: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VimpelCom Jean Yves Charlier on Wednesday urged the government to rationalize the tax rates, saying the telecom sector was the second largest taxpayer in Pakistan.
He said that his company wished to pay taxes to the government as it had been following the best international practices in other countries of the world.
There has been a dispute between Mobilink and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) about the total tune of unpaid taxes. In this regard, a delegation of VimpelCom and Abu Dhabi Group held a meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday.
However, Jean Yves Charlier while responding to questions in this regard in an interactive session with selected media persons here said that rationalization of tax rates could increase the total volume of tax collection in Pakistan.
Commenting on merger between the Mobilink and Warid he termed the merger as win-win situation for the two companies as well as consumers and whole Pakistan.
The two companies entered into an Acquisition Agreement in November 2015. Pursuant to the Acquisition Agreement, PMCL and Warid shall merge after completion of legal and procedural formalities.
He also announced to make huge investment in IT, infrastructure and other sections of the merged entities to higher the market share as well as to provide best services to the consumers.
He said that VimpelCom would increase market share up to double digit as number of consumers would cross the figure of 50 million in next few years.
He said that VimpelCom would provide thousands of jobs to the Pakistani youth by expanding network and upgrading level of services. Moreover, huge investment will be made by setting up 1500 mono branded outlets across Pakistan.
He added that his organization ranked Pakistan as one of the fastest emerging markets in the world therefore it had devised mega investment plans for Pakistan. Moreover, he said that Pakistani government was also pro business and welcoming to the foreign investment.
“Such an encouraging investment environment in Pakistan has attracted the international investors” he added saying that company would also invest in the capacity building of the staff by providing them with appropriate opportunities for training in their respective fields.
He said that his company would try to bring Pakistani experts back to their homeland by recruiting them from abroad. Actually, we are pursuing the recruitment policy of hiring highly qualified experts across the globe in a bid to provide best technically based services to the consumers.
