Telco firms urge government to announce relief package

KARACHI: Coronavirus is bringing the world economy to a standstill and situation in Pakistan isn’t very different. However, the Telecom Sector in Pakistan is also facing tough time as many retailers are also closed and sales are extremely low almost a decline of 50 per cent across country.

In view of the current situation, the telecom sector has also demanded the government to consider a relief package for them in order to curtail their financial losses in current emergency, while telecom is being declared as an essential service in the fight against this pandemic.

The demand of internet and telecommunication services has increased exponentially whereas capacity remains limited due to backbone and spectrum limitations.

As major businesses are closed due to lockdowns, landline and mobile voice traffic has seen a sharp decline, of up to an average of 15% – 18% less.

The sector also demands the federal government to abolish Withholding (WHT) temporarily till the COVID-19 fight continues, so that the subscriber can use his/her balance for more data/voice usage and temporary suspension of applicable Taxes on Data services by the Federal and respective Provincial governments to facilitate growth of online applications.

The Telco sector also asked the government that temporary Spectrum Allocation to Mobile operators should be enhanced Data Services offering during COVID-19 in line with other international best practices being adopted by Governments in this regard. Reduction in the USF and R&D funds contribution and annual payments by Telcos to PTA for one year to facilitate them for sustainable operations, it further asked.

It said that like all industries telecom industry is also facing challenging times right now.

According to PTA, while people staying and working from home with a surge in the use of online applications, data usage has increased by 15%.

However in terms of an overall revenue dip, Telcos are facing around 10-12% overall decrease in the first 3 weeks of the lockdowns amid Covid-19, industry people said.

Despite telecom sector has provided relief in form of free data, voice, WhatsApp, balance sharing and waiver of transaction fee on Mobile Financial Services, a targeted social media campaign has been designed to provide an impression otherwise. On an average spending per operator stands at 350 M each on such initiatives by Telcos for customer facilitation (Total 1400 M) so far.

Telcos in Pakistan are facing extreme pressures as data demand have increased yet price of packages have not been revised or increased in fact rather further decreased to facilitate lack of liquidity in the market, the official claimed.  Most of the services are being provided at the same rate and in quite a few cases certain services are being offered free of cost, he claimed.