by Telecom subscribers in the country are likely to pay an additional N261.18bn on voice calls, short message service and data in one year if the Senate passes the proposed Communications Service Bill into law.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Ali Ndume from Borno South, aims to charge nine per cent on communication services and pay-per-view TV services.
Ndume noted that the bill, which had passed the first reading at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, would impose levies on electronic communication services like voice calls, SMS, data usage – both from telecommunication services providers and Internet service providers and pay-per-view TV services.
Meanwhile, network operators under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria pointed out that the proposed nine per cent tax would make communication expensive and in turn make life difficult for the average Nigerians.
The Chairman of ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo, said communication was presently one of the most affordable basic needs of Nigerians but advised that the proposed increase was offensive and would make it inaccessible to many.
In fact, the bill specifically stipulated that the subscribers would be liable for the payment of the tax.
Section 2 of the bill reads, “The tax shall be paid together with the Electronic Communication Service charge payable to the service provider by the consumer of the service.
“The tax is due and payable on any supply of Electronic Communication Service within the time period specified under sub-clause (5) of whether or not the person making the supply is permitted or authorised to provide Electronic Communication Services.”
The latest monthly subscribers’ data obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission indicated that the number of active subscribers to mobile services in Nigeria through the four network operators stood at 176.62 million as of August 2019
MTN leads the industry with 65.71 million active subscribers, followed by Airtel with 47.92 million, Globacom has 47.27 million, 9mobile has 15.6 million and Visafone spectrum owned by MTN has 119,386 customers.
Source: Ife Ogunfuwa and Tunde Ajaja
