Addressing the launch ceremony of the “Smart Phone for All” initiative, held in collaboration with GSMA and KistPay, the federal minister said, “The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) need to understand the issues being faced by the IT and telecom sector.”
Earlier, Haque had strongly criticised the finance ministry and FBR for not addressing the issue of higher taxes in the telecom sector, saying the move was impacting the growth of the IT sector.
Stakeholders of the industry lamented that Pakistan has among the highest taxes on mobile calls, internet and mobile sets in the world, while the return on investments (ROI) was among the lowest.
“Since I have become the IT minister, I have stood by the telecom industry,” he said, adding that, “Digital growth is not only essential to strengthen the economy but is one of the basic conditions required to modernise the system of governance in the country.”
[…] also Government’s most recent whip hand to make technology more widely available has made buying cell phones significantly simpler by introducing interest free installment smartphone […]