The CBR has decided to charge 15 percent excise duty on actual transaction value of payphone cards and pre-paid calling cards, instead of the charges billed by PTCL. The proposed measure would not apply additional burden on consumers, and call charges would remain the same, because the price at which such cards are sold to consumers have an in-built component of ''excise duty''.

In the same manner, wireless local loop (WWL) is also a phone service, like mobile phone.

Therefore, it is proposed that WWL would be subjected to 15 percent excise duty.

CBR officials said that the WLL (wireless local loop) operators also use PTCL exchange for providing services to their clients, because they do not have their own backbone exchange.

PTCL collects excise duty @ 15 percent from WLL operators on the bulk time used by them, whereas the operators bill the clients on the basis of their individual usage with a built-in component of 15 percent excise duty.

Hence, the WLL operators collect much higher amount on account of excise duty from their clients, as compared to the amount of excise duty paid by them to PTCL, thereby pocketing the differential amount of excise duty.

Besides, WLL is a ''basic telephony'' like cellular phone. It is, therefore, proposed that the WLL operators would also be brought into the tax net and services provided by them would be charged to excise duty @ 15 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005