Islamabad, July 25, 2025 – Senator Shahadat Awan voiced strong criticism in the Senate on Friday over the deteriorating state of mobile connectivity across Pakistan, particularly highlighting persistent signal issues in areas like Daman-e-Koh, Islamabad.
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MediaTek unveils Dimensity 9200+ Chipset
MediaTek, a renowned semiconductor company, has announced the release of its highly anticipated Dimensity 9200+ chipset, an upgraded version of its predecessor.
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Engro enhances telecom investment to Rs21.5 billion
KARACHI: Engro Corporation has announced to enhance its total equity investment in the telecom infrastructure vertical to Rs21.5 billion.
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Budget 2021/2022: FED reduced on telecom services
ISLAMABAD: The government has announced reduction in Federal Excise Duty (FED) from 17 percent to 16 percent to facilitate businesses and provide relief to the general masses.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin while presenting federal budget 2021/2022 on Friday said the government had decided to reduce FED on telecom services.
He said that to facilitate businesses and provide relief to the general masses, rate of federal excise duty on telecommunication is proposed to be reduced from 17 percent to 16 percent.
Further, the finance minister announced withdrawal of federal excise duty on Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charged on POS by banks, so that businesses are encouraged to carry out transactions through POS machines.
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SRB issues sales tax rate on telecom services
KARACHI: Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) on Tuesday updated working tariff up to November 01, 2020 for levy of sales tax on telecommunication services.
The sales tax on services are exempt on telecommunication services involving charges payable on the international leased lines or bandwidth services used by the software exporting firms registered with the Pakistan Software Export Board.
Following is the table for the application of sales tax on telecommunication services along with tariff headings:
9812.1000 Telephone services 19.5% 9812.1100 Fixed line voice telephone service 19.5% 9812.1200 Wireless telephone 19.5% 9812.1210 Cellular telephone 19.5% 9812.1220 Wireless Local Loop telephone 19.5% 9812.1300 Video telephone 19.5% 9812.1400 Payphone cards 19.5% 9812.1500 Prepaid calling cards 19.5% 9812.1600 Voice mail service 19.5% 9812.1700 Messaging service 19.5% 9812.1710 Short Message service (SMS) 19.5% 9812.1720 Multimedia message service (MMS) 19.5% 9812.1910 Shifting of telephone connection 19.5% 9812.1920 Installation of telephone 19.5% 9812.1930 Provision of telephone extension 19.5% 9812.1940 Changing of telephone connection 19.5% 9812.1950 Conversion of NWD connection to non NWD or vice versa 19.5% 9812.1960 Cost of telephone set 19.5% 9812.1970 Restoration of telephone connection 19.5% 9812.1990 Others 19.5% 9812.2000 Bandwidth services 19.5% 9812.2100 Copper line based 19.5% 9812.2200 Fibre-optic based 19.5% 9812.2300 Co-axial cable based 19.5% 9812.2400 Microwave based 19.5% 9812.2500 Satellite based 19.5% 9812.2900 Others 19.5% 9812.3000 Telegraph 19.5% 9812.4000 Telex 19.5% 9812.5000 Telefax 19.5% 9812.5010 Store and forward fax services 19.5% 9812.5090 Others 19.5% 9812.6000 Internet services 19.5% 9812.6100 Internet services including email services 19.5% 9812.6110 Dial-up internet services 19.5% 9812.6120 Broadband services for DSL connection 19.5% 9812.6121 Copper line based 19.5% 9812.6122 Fibre-optic based 19.5% 9812.6123 Co-axial cable based 19.5% 9812.6124 Wireless based 19.5% 9812.6125 Satellite based 19.5% 9812.6129 Others 19.5% 9812.6130 Internet/email/Data/SMS/MMS services on WLL networks 19.5% 9812.6140 Internet/email/Data/SMS/MMS services on cellular mobile networks 19.5% 9812.6190 Others 19.5% 9812.6200 Data Communication Network services (DCNS) 19.5% 9812.6210 Copper Line based 19.5% 9812.6220 Co-axial cable based 19.5% 9812.6230 Fibre-optic based 19.5% 9812.6240 Wireless/Radio based 19.5% 9812.6250 Satellite based 19.5% 9812.6290 Others 19.5% 9812.6300 Value added data services 19.5% 9812.6310 Virtual private Network services (VPN) 19.5% 9812.6320 Digital Signature service 19.5% 9812.6390 Others 19.5% 1[9812.7000 Other specified telecommunication services 19.5% 9812.7100 Audio Text Services 19.5% 9812.7200 Teletext services 19.5% 9812.7300 Trunk radio services 19.5% 9812.7400 Paging services including voice paging services and radio paging services 19.5% 9812.7900 Others 19.5% 9812.8000 Tracking and alarm service 19.5% 9812.8100 Vehicle tracking and other tracking services 19.5% 9812.8200 Burglar and security alarm services 19.5% 9812.8900 Others 19.5% 9812.9000 Telecommunication services not elsewhere specified] 19.5% -
Court restriction on telecom tax costs Rs55 billion: FBR
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has incurred loss of Rs55 billion due to restriction imposed by Supreme Court of Pakistan on collection of tax on phone services.
The FBR in its year book 2018-2019, said that during the last fiscal year it had missed the revenue collection target by Rs321.5 billion due to various reasons.
The FBR said that a loss of Rs55 billion was incurred due to suspension of withholding tax on telecommunication services by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The other reasons for revenue shortfall included: petroleum Rs96 billion; reduced government spending Rs80 billion; import compression Rs16 billion, reduced rates of salary income Rs50 billion and reduction in customs duty Rs50 billion.
The FBR collected Rs. 3,828.5 billion during FY 2018-2019 against Rs. 3,843.8 billion during FY 2017-2018 indicating a negative growth of 0.4 percent.
The revised revenue target of Rs. 4,150 billion has been achieved to the extent of 92.3 percent.
The direct taxes, sales tax, FED and customs missed their respective targets by 12.9 percent, 2.1 percent, 10.5 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.
During FY 2018-2019 the overall growth in net tax collection has been declined by 0.4 percent.
The collection of FED grew by around 11.6 percent and customs by 12.7 percent during FY 2018-2019, whereas the sales tax and direct taxes recorded a negative growth of 1.8 percent and 5.9 percent respectively.
As per the collection FY 2018-2019 the sales tax is the top revenue generator with 38.1 percent share followed by direct taxes with 37.8 percent, customs 17.9 percent and FED 6.2 percent.
During FY 2018-2019 the share of customs duty and FED has increased, whereas the share of direct taxes and sales tax has decreased slightly.
The FBR said that the overall growth in collection remained dismal during FY 2018-2019. The overall collection witnessed decline of 0.4 percent, which is Rs. 15.3 billion lesser than the collection of FY 2017-2018.
It is pertinent to mention that last time the negative growth (-2.6 percent) was recorded in 1967-68 in the FBR revenue collection.
A look on the monthly growth trend indicates a very good increase in July 2018 and May 2019 but during the remaining ten months either growth was below the double digit or negative.
As a whole during the year negative growth in revenue was recorded during five months as compared to corresponding months of the previous year, which is in fact very unusual behavior.
The revenue performance during April and June have been very poor with around (-) 30.7 percent and (-) 8.9 percent negative growth.
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Duty exemption on foreign bandwidth services withdrawn
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced the withdrawal of duty exemption on foreign bandwidth services provided by telecom operators.
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