SC suspends additional taxes on mobile cards

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday barred mobile network companies from charging additional taxes.

The mobile phone users will now be getting Rs88.89 instead of Rs76.94 on the recharge of Rs100. This means that a relief of Rs11.95 has been given to the users from the court. On April 27, the top court reinstated taxes on mobile phone cards after which the consumers received only Rs77.19 on a recharge of Rs100.

In June 2018, an SC bench headed by then CJP Mian Saqib Nisar suspended the deduction of taxes imposed on the top-up of prepaid cards by cellphone service providers and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Former CJP Saqib Nisar had questioned how a person who did not fall within the tax net was made to pay taxes on mobile phone top-up. The tax should be levied on a person whose cell phone use exceeded the fixed limit, he added.