Go Mobile, Vodafone implementing Budget excise tax

Both Go Mobile and Vodafone last week announced how they are to implement the 3% Excise Tax on mobile telephony services announced by the Government in the 2005 Budget.

In line with instructions issued by the relevant authorities, they are to apply the tax from next Wednesday.

Go Mobile yesterday said prepaid subscribers will be charged in the form of a top-up administration charge. It will also cease to absorb the 3% increase in VAT from 15% to 18%, which the company has done since last January.

The top-up administration charge will be 27 cents in the case of a Lm5 top-up, 54 cents when topping up Lm10, Lm1.08 when topping up Lm20, and Lm1.61 in the case of a Lm30 top-up.

Contract cusstomers will be charged the 3% Excise Tax as from January 1 on all mobile services. However, Excise Tax on the monthly access fee will be charged from February 1.

Go Mobile will itself pay the Excise Tax for the period from next Wednesday to the end of the month in the case of services, and until the end of January in the case of the monthly access fee.

No adjustment for the increase in VAT will be made to contract clients as current tariffs already reflect this increase.

Vodafone said on Friday it would start applying a recharge equivalent to the 3% Excise Tax to its customers in a staged manner. This charge will also be subject to VAT.

For post-paid customers, the 3% charge will be applied on all network services from January 1 and on monthly access charges due from February 1.

For prepaid customers the 3% charge will apply from next Wednesday.

Revising the service charges on top-up vouchers will also start on Wednesday. Vodafone will be revising the service charge on top-up vouchers from Wednesday. For an example of a detailed calculation based on a Lm5 top-up voucher customers have been referred to the company's Website, www.vodafone.com.mt

The 3% charge will not be applicable on donations.

For more information, Go Mobile customers can check out the company Website, www.go.com.mt , call 146 from a Go Mobile line or 7922-2146 from other networks. Vodafone customers can call Customer Service on 247 from their Vodafone or 2148-2820 from any other phone.