STAFF REPORT IBD: The telecom sector in Pakistan has become the biggest utility services consumed by customers of various income levels in different parts of the country as they paid Rs 39.828 billion as taxes on telephony services in the first half of current financial year 2011-12.
According to the FBR statistics, it collected Rs 24.058 billion GST/FED from customers of different telephony services in July-December 2011.
The telecom service is having the largest subscriber base in the country with more than 116 million subscribers on various operators using different technology.
On the top of all, the rate of FED collected on telephony services in the mode of GST, is the highest among all the sectors, standing at 19.5 percent compared with 16 percent of different sectors and utility services.
The telecom sector is the major spinner after petroleum products contributing to massive revenues under GST.
Previously, the sector generated Rs 23.429 billion under GST, showing growth of 14.2 percent revenues of tax authorities on the increase of services utility and number of subscribers on different networks.
Besides, FBR collected Rs 15.77 billion under Withholding Tax (WHT) in the first half of the current financial year 2011-12 as against Rs 13.264 billion taxes collected under the same head in the corresponding period of pervious financial year.