PARIS: In a joint statement, Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free have expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision by the French parliament to increase the telecom tax to 1.4 percent of revenue from 2017. Introduced in 2009, the tax is used to help finance the state-owned TV broadcaster France Televisions. During its last review, in October 2015, it had increased from 0.9 to 1.3 percent of revenue.
Published by the French Telecoms Federation, the statement points out that since 2009, the tax has raised EUR 1.8 billion and that the latest increase will represent an additional contribution amounting to several tens of millions of euros in 2017. The four operators call for parliament to keep the necessary balance between fiscal policy and the need for long-term investment in the country’s telecom infrastructure.
