Slashdot Mirror
Taxing Text Messages?
Makarand writes "SMS is a very popular way of communication in the Phillipines
with an estimated 14 million phone subscribers sending an average of 10 text
messages a day. However, that may all change if a proposal from the IMF to impose a tax
on SMS is implemented to solve the country's fiscal problems according
to an article
in The Straits Times. The IMF is basing
its suggestion on the fact that the country's tax base currently rests on
the troubled sectors of the economy- banking and manufacturing, which cannot
be squeezed anymore. Hopefully, our political think tanks will not get any such ideas."
In Europe, the telcos use SMS as a cash cow - it's unregulated (regulatory regimes were built in the age of analogue comms) and they rip you off. And it's already taxed (VAT) - it's time the companies charge a more realistic price (15 cents a text message is a typical price today).
Here, in Hungary (Europe), one SMS costs 12-15 cents (price converted to USD). This sum contains the base price + 25% tax (VAT).
The phone companies ARE using SMS's as cash-cows, since there's no way the infrastructure would justify this cost.
First off, it isn't the Phillipines that is coming up with this "new and unique way to find money", it is, as usual, the IMF. And if you actually read the article, you'd see that they expect a lot more than $51 million a year in tax income from this.
Who will suffer? The poor, of course. The IMF always asks governments to crack down on the poor, while sheltering the rich.
Unlike in Europe, where SMS is a cash cow for greedy telcoms, SMS in the Phillipines is free (or at least was until recently, I am not following very closely).
That may be true elesewhere, but not in the Phillippines. According to this article, text messages in the Phillipines are pervasive and cheap. They get pay per use cell phones for about $5.00 and can strech that to two months with 4 text messages/day (vs.
SONY. Because caucasians are just too damn tall.
The IMF financial solutions are not always ideal. Look at what happened to countries which actually implements its proposals. Most end up becoming worse before seeking IMF bailouts.
Indonesia didn't improve, Argentina's financial woes worsens, and S. Korea ended up pawning some of their biggest companies. Malaysia almost took up IMF's offer during the 97-98 financial crisis, but luckily the govt forsees the impact of some of the conditions... and Malaysia is recovering quite well if compared to other countries in S.E. Asia.
The Filipino govt should be able to decide what's best for the country's economic condition because they are more familiar with the economic factors involved.
I'm not saying taxation is a bad decision, but it shouldn't be at the expense of the population's financial well-being. Perhaps taxation of mobile phone sales and accesories would be more fair?
Just my $0.02's worth.
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
an SMS here costs PhP 1.00, or approx. 2 cents. Cheap compared to most countries.
Most people here are not in favor on puting tax on SMS because believe it or not, most of the SMS users are in the middle-class and below. It's because it's hard to get a land line here, and the cheapest way to get around it is to use SMS. Paying high bills is not a problem because most are using pre-paid systems.
I don't think it would push through because as of now, most of the law makers are againts it. And most are againts it not because we'll have to pay more, it's also because we're sick and tired of the dictations of the IMF.
Take-off every
is the surest (almost) way of communicating with someone. It is assured that the recepient will receive the SMS message and cannot ignore it. Unlike calling, wherein the recipient could just not answer the call. The quality of the service here is not that reliable for calling.
Most of the cellphone users here are pre-paid. We just buy $5.00 worth of credits that can be stretched for 2 months before expiration. Compared to post-paid users, the cheapest plan is between $10.00 - $12.00 per month. This includes 66 free text messages (if you send to the same network, outerwise you would be deducted $0.02 cents on your credit) every cycle, which is repeated every month. Therefore if the pre-paid subscriber can stretched his credit for two months he/she would have 132 free SMS messages. In the long run, if you are just using SMS, you can save a lot.
SMS messages here are not unlike IRCs (we Filipinos are just too fond of gossips =)). We abbreviate words, sentence, heck even entire phrases to send our message. T9 here just don't cut it. Even non-geek people here are at ease with using a cellphone, they may not know how to use email but they can sure type out messages in almost most cryptic, IRC style SMS messages.
I for one does not approve of the meddling of the IMF in the internal affairs of my country. But I will approved the increase taxation of sin products.
International pirates.
They come up with some grand scheme to help a 3rd world country, and loan them a bunch of money for a dam, a power plant, etc, etc. It fails miserably.
Now the country has to pay this mega project off, plus their original debt. If the country looks like it will default on their payments, the IMF comes in and says, "We'll prop you up, but we need to be in control." The IMF then gets farmers to change from food to cash crops, cuts off any semblence of workers benefits, etc.
For example, in Equador, "...the IMF's 167 loan conditions look less like an assistance plan and more like a blueprint for a financial coup d'etat"
As Bruce Cockburn sings, "IMF / dirty enough / takes away anything it can get / always certain that theres one thing left / keep them on the ropes with unsupportable debt..."