I refer to the ‘wayang kulit’ being played out by many who are pointing the blame at the telcos for wanting to pass on the service tax charges to the end users i.e. the customers. One minister has even said that he will refer the matter to the cabinet?

What’s wrong with the telcos’ decision? They are just following and implementing a government directive to charge service tax on postpaid and prepaid service. So what laws have the telcos broken or under what grounds is this issue going to be referred to the cabinet?

The service tax is a compulsory federal tax that is charged on all items on the prescribed list. If prepaid is to be exempted, what about postpaid then? What about all the other service and goods that we have to pay the service tax, why not the vendors or suppliers absorb that portion too.

Sometimes many of us just jump onto the bandwagon for the ride without thinking what is the real issue at stake. So if the cabinet decides that the telcos must absorb the service tax, then would they compensate the telcos for the loss as the toll operators have been blessed with?

Leave businesses alone to manage and charge what they are allowed to under the law, mobile phones and services are not essential items; there is no need for special protection.

Instead I would urge all those on the bandwagon to concentrate on pressuring the regulators and the telcos for improvement in the charging and service procedures.

In Europe prepaids don’t expire, here it does; the initial cost for 3G is very low, here the lowest amount is high. Our prepaid services are not really prepaid as such, it is not pay as you go. They just take our money upfront and impose all sorts of limits on us.

Please instead chew the many anti consumer rights policies and procedures that are being imposed. Service tax is not one of them.