Rana Mahmood-ul-Hasan chaired a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet. The topic of social media offices was covered at the conference, along with other advances in the IT industry. Social media companies said they are considering building virtual offices and have chosen not to open operations in Pakistan due to safety concerns.
Farooq H. Naek brought up the subject of growing cell phone bills. He complained that this hinders the nation’s digitization efforts and limits access. He expressed doubts about the attempts to digitize the economy. The Cabinet Secretary said the matter will be discussed with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The secretary also mentioned that the beginning of local mobile production and the availability of phones in installments will help with digitization. Twenty million mobile phones are produced annually by 37 local companies, of which forty percent are smartphones.
The Chairman PTA informed the committee. According to him, 56% of people in Pakistan have access to the internet, and the country’s 5G auction is scheduled for March or April of the next year. Four times in the past year, on occasions such as Muharram, May 9, and elections, mobile services were stopped.
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Telenor has previously departed India and is now departing Asia. They assert that they are losing money and that the business environment in Pakistan is unfavorable. The satellite policy is now finalized, and the licensing process for IoT technology is about to begin. Rana Mahmood-ul-Hasan questioned whether social media behemoths are paying taxes for foreign advertisements at the meeting.
The PTA Chairman claims that since there are no rules or laws regarding this subject, there is a lack of legislation. According to Azam Nazir Tarar, discussions over this matter are still ongoing with social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. He further mentioned that these platforms are subject to global taxes and are used for business purposes.
The PTA Chairman claimed that the tax on telecom users in Pakistan is 34.50%, in contrast to other nations such as Sri Lanka (20-40%), Bangladesh (21-33%), India (18.5%), and Nepal (26%). In the last two years, there haven’t been any cyberattacks on telecom, the chairman continued.
