DHAKA, Jan 14, 2019 (BSS) – The government withdrew SIM replacement tax and supplementary duties for availing the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service.
A gazette notification issued on Sunday by the Internal Resources Division of the Finance Ministry removed the value added tax (VAT) and other supplementary duties, which have been demanding by the mobile phone operators since the introduction of MNP.
However, the mobile phone operators have to comply with some conditions to avail the benefit as per the gazette notification.
Mobile phone operator, Robi welcomed the decision terming it as a positive move for the industry.
Robi’s Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Shahed Alam said: “We are expecting that interest of mobile phone users would be increased for MNP due to the initiative which would also help the government boost revenue earning.”
Besides, users would get quality of services as the operators put concentration on their service due to MNP, noted Alam.
The much-awaited MNP service was launched on October 1 last year that opened up the users’ freedom of choice in switching to any network, retaining the existing number unchanged, which was not possible earlier for the hassle of changing number.
Infozillion Teletech BD, a consortium of Infozillion BD Limited and Teletech DOO, Slovenia, has been assigned to run the service.
After its initial launch, the charge for MNP service was a total of Taka 157.50 including SIM tax – Taka 100, service charge – Taka 50 and 15 percent VAT.