Int’l call charges revised

The Government is expecting revenue to the tune of Rs.2 billion from the levies charged on foreign telephone calls for the financial year ending in March 2012, Telecommunication Regulatory commission (TRC) said yesterday.

TRC Director General Anusha Palpita told the Daily Mirror that that the TRC is expecting such an amount. He said exact revenue figures would be known when the audit report comes out by February 20 this year.

An increase of the revenue is likely with the revisions of levies which came into effect from January 1 this year.

International call levies were increased from January 1 this year in keeping with the budget proposals.

According to the Gazette notification issued on December 29, 2011 the levy payable on incoming international calls has increased up to nine US cents from seven US cents last year.

The incoming local access charge had been increased to six US cents from 5.50 US cents last year.

In addition the local access charge for outgoing international calls has also increased to Rs.3 per minute according to the gazette notification.

However no increase has been made for the monthly charge for incoming calls as it had remained at three US cents. But the charge per month for every additional 1,000 minutes has increased from 1.50 US cents per minute in 2011 to three US cents per additional minute.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his budget speech said telecommunication charges on incoming and outgoing calls will be revised suitably in keeping with development priorities. He said Sri Lanka Telecom as well as private companies have undertaken large investments for the development of telecommunication facilities. “The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will implement policies and strategies to encourage telecommunication companies to give priority for the development of broad-band network facilities,” he said.

 

Courtesy: DM Online

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