PTA still charging tax on calls by expats, LHC told
LAHORE: Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the Lahore High Court directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to submit until December 13 copy of a notification about withdrawal of additional tax on incoming international telephone calls. The judge was hearing a petition which has challenged the charging of additional tax on incoming international calls. On Wednesday, PTA’s counsel informed the court that the impugned additional tax had been withdrawn. He requested the judge to dismiss the petition after the withdrawal of the tax. The petitioner’s counsel claimed that what the PTA counsel was claiming was not true. “The tax is still being collected on the incoming international calls. The overseas Pakistanis are still facing the problem,” he said. The judge ordered to produce the copy of the withdrawl notification. The petition against this tax was moved on behalf of a Lahore-based local loop operator Brain Telecommunications Limited.
The petitioner’s counsel, Barrister Umar Chaudhry, submitted that that PTA had unlawfully imposed the additional tax and since October 1, 2012, Pakistanis living abroad had been paying four times extra charges on a phone call made to homeland. He said that PTA had also violated competition commission’s rules. He said that this additional tax was a violation of the rules prescribed in Section 4 of the Competition Commission Act, which prohibits price fixing and division of market through quotas.
He submitted that the CCP was mandated to provide free competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activity to enhance economic efficiency and to protect consumers from anti competitive behaviour.
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i knew this wouldn’t last long but like the ziddi looters they are…!