Comments on: Economic and Social Benefits of Mobile Services In Pakistan

By: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Revenues From Telecom Sector In Pakistan

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:51:12 +0000

[...] also done very well because of tax and other revenues. Here’s a snapshot (source: Deloitte) of the additional revenues which mobile telecom companies pay to PTA. Given this solid cash flow [...]

By: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Summary Of Mobile Communications Benefits

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:32:24 +0000

[...] series on mobile communication benefits to Pakistan economy, here I have highlighted the economic impact and included some employment [...]

By: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Mobile Industry Tax Revenues

State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Mobile Industry Tax Revenues — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:00:19 +0000

[...] is in another post related to the series on economic impact of mobile telecom in Pakistan. Among other interesting items Deloitte’s report also gives [...]

By: Communications

Communications — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:16:11 +0000

More articles on the productivity benefits of telecom investment…

Over the past two years, I written on the Large Productivity Benefit of Telecom Investment, the Strong positive impact of telecom on economic growth in developing countries and Large Productivity Benefit of Telecom Investment in Emerging Markets. Those…

By: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Mobile Value Chain For Pakistan

State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan » Mobile Value Chain For Pakistan — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:30:38 +0000

[...] is part 2 of the series on economic and social benefits of mobile services in Pakistan. This will focus on the mobile value chain, that is, the share of different stakeholders such as [...]

By: Babar Bhatti

Babar Bhatti — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:48:07 +0000

Brough - the tax calculations are based on the report. Please note that the activation tax is not a burden on the users as mobile companies pay it. However it becomes part of the total cost of the ownership. I’ll soon post more on this.

You nailed the effect of lowering activation charges in your 2005 post.

By: Brough Turner

Brough Turner — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:01:32 +0000

I’m interested in your assertion that “Pakistan has one of the highest tax burdens on mobile services in Asia Pacific.” Are you sure? Can you point me at data?

I was under the impression that India had one of the highest regulatory burdens on mobile phone service, including license fees, spectrum charges, universal service fees, etc. But my India and China data is from 2005 and I have no similar data on Pakistan.

I have no doubt that the reduction in the activation tax contributed to mobile phone services taking off in Pakistan ~2004 as I commented in 2005:
http://blogs.nmss.com/communications/2005/12/more_on_telecom.html

And that each tax cut resulted in more total government revenue (due to subscriber growth):
http://blogs.nmss.com/communications/2006/09/cutting_telecom.html

Thanks for your blogging which I continue to find extremely interesting!