Tax on SIM cards

A burden of tax amounting Tk. 1500 was already there. Now it will be collected in two stages. Tk 300 per handset at the time of import and Tk. 1200 when a new connection SIM card is sold. As a result, the price of handset will go down by more than Tk 1200. For example, the price of a handset procured at Tk. 5000 could be fixed as [Tk. 5000 (CIF cost) + Tk.1000 (margin @ 20%) + Tk. 1500 (tax) + Tk 150 (margin on money paid as tax which will remain blocked for say 6 months, @ 10%) ] to be sold at Tk 7,650. The price of the same handset will be [Tk. 5000 (CIF cost) + Tk.1000 (margin @ 20%) + Tk. 300 (tax) + Tk 30 (margin on money paid as tax which will remain blocked for say 6 months, @ 10%) ] = Tk. 6,330 which is Tk. 1320 lower than the previous price.

The highest benefit, however, will go to the existing 5 milli on customers. On an average a mobile subscriber has to buy new handset every three year. They will get a relief of Tk. 1320 on each purchase.

Someone may argue that most hansets were smuggled and so the price were not as high as it could be for a Tk. 1500 tax. But we must not support crying for losing benefits of theft.

Mobile operators are least concerned about their old customers. It seems that they would have been happy with the previous taxation policy which offer them more flexibility in fixing higher price of SIM. Our experience of buying SIM cards at taka 4 to 5 thousand is not older than 6 months.