Monrovia – Members of the House of Representatives has instructed its Chief Clerk to seek the advice of the Ministry of Justice and the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) on appropriate sanction to be taken LoneStarCell/MTN for allegedly lying under oath at the Legislature.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
The GSM Company has also been mandated by Plenary to restore its three-day ‘free’ call promotion.
LoneStarCell/MTN during the 2016/2017 Budget hearing informed lawmakers that the imposition of one cent tax on all voice calls will have no effect on subscribers three days promotional calls or extra cost.
Lawmakers specifically members of the House of Representatives have argued that the decision to pass a law imposing taxes on voice call was done based on advice from LonestarCell/MTN but this decision has cause uproar against from members of the public.
There have been mixed reactions from the public since the passage of the amended Revenue Code, most of which condemns the Legislature for passing the law.
Lewis Roberts, Deputy Chief Executive officer of the Company appearing before Plenary Tuesday admitted promising that the one cent tax burden would not have impacted the subscribers and maintained that the company has not taken away the three days call as being reported.
Roberts: “True be told, we attended two hearings in some committee room; at the two hearings the discussion on adding one cent on local calls were held. “
“What we told the committee is that lone-star cell will not pass on the burden of the one cent to the tax payer and that we have not changed.
“Today we are still selling our scratch card for US$1.00 and there is still an opportunity for three days on a dollar to call. What we have not done and do easily is that we will not give unlimited minutes use on a dollar for three days.”
According to him, the company decided to fracture the three-day promo because subscribers were misusing it thereby causing problems within the network.
“We tried as best we could as an institution to control our cost and overhead expenses as a company but it was difficult,” he added.
The popular dial *143# to grant GSM subscribers ‘free’ intra network calls came to an end when taxation on calls took effect on Sunday, January 15, 2017..
The Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) in a communication addressed to GSM Companies operating in Liberia informed the companies of the coming into effect Section 1165 of the Amended Revenue Code which was recently passed by an act legislature, signed into law and subsequently printed into handbills.
“The Minister of Finance and Development Planning has authorized the LTA to proceed with enforcement of this new Section 1165 which we will do through billing and invoicing the revenues generated from this tax.
“To this end you are hereby notified that effective immediately and commencing no later than 15 January 2017 telephone services providers shall begin collecting the new excise tax of US$0.01 on all domestic voice calls,” the LTA penned in its communication to GSM Companies.
The LTA also mandated GSM companies to “beginning February 5, 2017, service providers shall provide to the LTA a copy of all record details (CRDs) covering all domestic voice traffic.
When the bill first appeared at the Legislature, group under the banner Association of Telecom Consumers petitioned the Legislature, requesting the body to reject the proposal.
In their petition, the group stressed that taxation on calls per minute would directly affect low income earners who are already struggling to cope with prevailing economic situation.