Monkey business and cell phone operators

The Finance Minister is right in saying that the overall cost of owning a cell phone should remain the same as overall tax per user remains the same. The new tax burden will fall fully on the users, not on the phone companies, and even then the cell phone operators are throwing their hands in the air as if all hell has broken loose. He has statistics to back that too. That is not that case. The question of affordability lies with the cell phone operators.

The overall cost of cell phone operation in Bangladesh should be lower than other countries. Most of the developed nations and South Asian countries auction off the cell phone licenses to the highest bidders. Even then their call rates are lower and service quality is higher than those available in Bangladesh. Since there is no license fee in Bangladesh, which by the way should be imposed, start-up cost for these operators are significantly lower than rest of the world. Then million-dollar question is why our call rates are higher than in India and Pakistan?