Emergency meeting at Finance Ministry to discuss telecom tax 

The Finance Ministry is to hold an emergency meeting with the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) on Thursday to discuss tax matters relating to the telecom industry including the cellular tower levy, a senior Treasury official confirmed.
Mobile operators have made representations expressing their concern on the new telco tower levy to Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera stating that this charge of Rs. 200,000 per month per tower is unbearable for them.
They have brought to the notice of the ministry that three out of the five mobile operators are still loss-making and this situation has worsened by their attempt to extend mobile services to under populated rural areas.
They also pointed out that the cost to build a tower was more than Rs. 10 million and its maintenance cost is around Rs.115,000 a month (including electricity, security, site rent, etc).
The proposed Rs. 200,000 tower levy will increase the monthly operational cost from Rs. 115,000 to Rs. 315,000 (an increase of 174 per cent, mobile operators added.
The ministry has taken note of the concerns conveyed by telecom providers but there was no decision taken so far to reconsider the 2018 budget proposal of levying Rs.200,000 per month per telco tower, the Treasury official said.   
However the TRC has expressed the view that three mobile operators, who are making continuous losses for last several years, will face many difficulties if the tower tax is implemented as proposed.
Since the subject of tax purely comes under the government policy, the regulator’s role on this regards is very limited, TRC sources said. (Bandula)