The parliament yesterday passed the Development Surcharge and Levy Bill 2015 keeping the provision for imposing 1% surcharge on services obtained by mobile phone SIMs, RUIMs and memory cards.
The bill was passed through voice vote after it was placed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
On September 1, the minister submitted the bill and it was sent to the standing committee on the Finance Ministry for scrutiny.
According to the bill, 1% surcharge will be imposed on the amount charged by mobile operators for providing services – talk time, SMS and other services enjoyed by subscribers.
Although the bill proposed to impose 1% surcharge on SIM and RUIM cards, Jatiya Party lawmaker Fakhrul Imam proposed to impose the surcharge on memory cards as well and it was accepted.
However, the mechanism for collecting surcharge on memory cards was not made clear as the finance minister did not say anything about this.
It is projected that the 1% surcharge on SIM and RUIM cards will generate an additional Tk140 crore revenue for the government per year. The amount collected from surcharge would be spent on education and healthcare.
