KABUL (SW): The Wolesi Jirga (lower house) on Wednesday voted with majority against the presidential decree on collecting 10 per cent tax from mobile phone consumers.
Qais Hassn, chairman of the house’s committee on telecommunication and broadcasting, said on the occasion that official estimates suggest there are around 24 million mobile users in the country, and on daily basis up to 20 million people use mobile phones in the country. Based on these estimates, the government is bagging up to AFN 7.3 billion on yearly basis.
He, however, charged that in the past two years only AFN 7.9 billion have made it to the government’s kitty while more than AFN 7 billion have been embezzled by corresponding public offices and telecommunication firms.
A while ago, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) had said there is no transparent mechanism available to track down collection of the 10 per cent tax on the mobile phone users in the county. The Masharano Jirga (upper house) has so far not rejected the decree in this regard, and the joint commission of the two houses is probing the matter.
ENDS
