Telecom companies have now received the written orders of Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar, to suspend all taxes on mobile cards and provide 100% credit on the amount recharged. Now customers would not be charged any tax or service charges on mobile cards or easy-loads effective from 12:00 am, June 13th, 2018. The order has been implemented and various users have confirmed 100% recharge amount.
Prior to this order, consumers were paying almost 42% tax on balance cards which included 19.5 percent Federal Excise Duty (FED), 12.5 percent With Holding Tax (WHT) and 10 percent service/ maintenance charges.
It is inarguably an Eid gift before Eidi but it is also important to mention that according to Supreme Court order, customers will get this initial relief for 15 days only and the future of this tax exemption will be decided in an upcoming hearing. FBR, mobile phone companies, and other stakeholders have yet to decide how to tax customers who come within the tax net.
Therefore, get your mobile phones recharged in the remaining days to get a tax-free recharge. However, do not hope that such exemption will continue after the 15 day period elapses.
