Africa-Press – Tanzania. Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kundo Mathew
THE government has said lowering bundles for voice calls, data and short messaging service prices is a long process that aims at balancing business interests of telecom firms while ensuring state generates deserved tax in the industry.
Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kundo Mathew gave the explanations in the Parliament, Dodoma on Thursday when he was responding to Kilolo lawmaker, Justin Nyamoga who wanted to know when the government will lower various communication bundles to enable every people afford the services.
In his response, the Deputy Minister insisted that before taking the decision, considerations are made around production cost simply because telecom firms should operate in a profitable manner and pay taxes.
He insisted that taxes collected from the players are used to improve other services including, but not limited to, roads, health.
The Deputy Minister said the government’s first priority is to stabilize current rates.
Mr Mathew the challenge the authority is facing is the lack of uniform prices charged by telecom firms though the government has issued the directive to the service providers to use the previous rates.
