The Fiscal Review Committee has recommended that in consultation with the industry participants and stakeholders, including telecommunication companies, the government should consider widening the current revenue base to include data, together with a fair and reasonable rate.
The committee says this may be more publicly acceptable if the government commits to applying this revenue to improve communications services and be seen as a form of “user pays” revenue.
It says telecommunications levy of 1% is paid by telecommunications companies for voice calls on behalf of customers.
The committee also says the revenue from the levy has not been significant and was around $0.8 million in the calendar for the year 2022.
It says many countries have introduced special taxes on telecommunications services with a wider revenue base and higher rates, raising significantly more revenue compared to Fiji.
The report says consideration should be given to widen the base by including data usage and other services for the telecommunications levy and also increasing the rate from the current 1%.
