MANILA, Philippines -- Amid strong hints that government is considering a tax on text messaging to make up for the revenues it will lose if oil taxes are abolished, the telecommunications companies on Thursday chorused their disapproval and claimed that texting was already being sufficiently taxed.
“There is already a tax, the 12 percent VAT, that covers the nominal price of a regular text message, which is P1,” said Smart Communication spokesperson Ramon Isberto.
“We pay a lot of taxes already. There is the franchise tax, corporate tax, overseas communication tax and many others,” said Globe Telecom spokesperson Jones Campos.
“Any additional tax would bring costs up, which would make it harder to deliver quality service at affordable prices. Consider the huge investments to regularly upgrade and expand individual networks,” said Sun Cellular legal chief William Pamintuan.
The telcos are now asking if the new tax is a “sin tax,” which would mean that text messaging has been classified as either a luxury or a vice, like cigarette smoking.
Isberto said Smart considers texting as a basic service, especially for lower-income users to whom cellular calls would be expensive.
About 400 million to 600 million text messages are sent every day..source of Inquirer.net
