News Title : Telcos demand no double taxation on SIM re-registrations

News Date : 2015-11-08

-Ahmed Shawki
The country’s mobile phone operators have demanded tax exemption on the SIM cards which are re-registered by the subscribers following an ongoing government drive to secure the crimes through mobile phone. Officials of a number of mobile companies say as the SIM cards, which have faulty registrations are already tax paid by the operators, the National Revenue Board should not impose double taxation on those. They said as the name of the owner is changing in papers the revenue board might count it as new connection and in such cases mobile operators have to pay Tk 100 for every new SIM sale. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission and the telecom ministry in a recent move asked the mobile operators and the subscribers to re-register their SIM with fresh information. A BTRC official said that technically the NBR could claim tax for the e-registered SIMs. ‘For example, a retailer has already registered a SIM with an NID number and now you are changing it to your name which is a re-registration. So in papers, the ownership is changing and technically the NBR can claim tax for that,’ he explained. The telecom ministry in a latest move pushed SIM registration verification process through the Election Commission database. After the initial verification of one lakh mobile SIM with the EC database it was found that 75 per cent of the SIM cards have faulty registrations. Even cases have been found that that 14,000 SIM cards were registered under one NID and 11,000 with another one. ‘We have already conveyed our concern to the National Board of Revenue, the telecom ministry and the telecom regulator and requested an exemption for the double taxation of SIMs following re-registrations,’ Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh chief executive officer TIM Nurul Kabir told New Age on Saturday. He said as the re-registration was taking place on national interest, the government should consider the matter with due priority. ‘If you can remember, during the SIM re-registration in 2007-08 the government allowed tax exemption for the re-registered SIMs. So there is already a precedent on this issue and we just want the government to keep that in mind,’ Grameenphone chief corporate affairs officer Mahmud Hossain told New Age when asked about the issue. ‘The SIM cards with somehow faulty registrations are also tax paid by the operators. So, imposing tax again on that will be very unfortunate and costly for the operators,’ he said.

Source