Nawaz Sharif Govt. is going to apply more taxes on mobile phones in new budget (2016-17). The Government is planning to impose new taxes ranging Rs 500 to Rs 2000 from cheap mobile phones to high-end Smartphones respectively.
If the above-mentioned tax rates, purposed in a summary will be applied in coming budget then all kind of cell phones prices will definitely increase accordingly. It might give a negative impact on mobile phones companies as well as on smartphones users across the country.
It is not the first time govt. increasing tax rates on the import of cell phones, you remember or not, Nawaz govt. doubled the tax in the last budget (2015-16) on the import of mobile phones. As per the report of FBR(Federal Board of Revenue ), The Government of Pakistan had collected approximately eight billion rupees as tax from mobile phone industry this fiscal year. However, now the target is increased as the demand for mobile phones increasing day by day in Pakistan due to the launch of 3G and 4G technologies last year.
As we know telecommunications companies offering many services and attractive internet usage bundles, due to this factor internet usage doubled this year as compared to last year. But if the Government of Pakistan imposed such taxes on this growing industry it might put a negative impression on its overall growth and ultimately on end users.
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