Supplementary duty reduced on mobile usage

National Board of Revenue has issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) today reducing 2 percent supplementary duty from 5 percent on mobile usage.

The decision will be implemented from the zero hour tonight, a senior executive of mobile phone operator Robi said.

"We have got the SRO," said Ekram Kabir, vice president of communications and corporate responsibility at Robi. "We have already started working on it although there are some technical challenges."

On June 4, in his budget speech Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed 5 percent supplementary duty on all the mobile services and that evening NBR issued a SRO.

Before the passage of finance bill, the finance minister last Monday hinted that the duty will be reduced.

Mobile operators said 2 percent reduction of the supplementary duty will reduce the users' costs on call, SMS, MMS and internet uses as well.