The rate of mobile talk time may increase in the proposed national budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
In the new budget, Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has proposed to increase value added tax (VAT) by 5% on mobile phone calls.
Currently, 15% VAT is levied on talk time services. In addition to this, the cost of talking on mobile phones will increase if the supplementary duty of 5% comes into effect.
Earlier, for every Tk100 recharge in mobile phones, people get Tk75 as talk time and the government gets about Tk25 as value-added tax (VAT), supplementary duty, and surcharge.
Now, the government will get Tk28.
So, people's mobile phone use costs will increase by another Tk5, in every Tk100 recharge and their usable amount will shrink to less than Tk62.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali presented the proposed budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year amounting to Tk797,000 crore (Tk7.97 trillion) in parliament on Thursday.
This was his first budget unveiling and the first budget after the reelection of the Awami League government in January.
