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CCP issues show cause notice to Warid Telecom

Sc8uf — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:12:01 +0000

Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) under the section 30 of Competition act, 2010, has issued a show cause notice to Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Limited. CCP issued the notice because of Warid’s misleading and deceptive advertisings. Warid is advertising one of its packages as “minute package” in which they show that by subscribing to this package calls can be made at the cost of 1.20/min to any network. A press release stated that in the notice it has been said that Warid is spreading false and ambiguous information through its ads and other promotions regarding the price of it packages. The “minute package” is advertised by the violation of Section 10(2) (b) of the Act.

The actual rate of the package has not been disclosed and clarified in the advertisement. The advertised rate is 1.20/min which is without taxes.
The package can only be availed between11.00 PM to 4.59 PM, which is also not mentioned in the advertisement.
More of the above, it has not been disclosed that during the non package timings that is from 5.00 Pm to 10.59 PM, the call rates for the off-net and on-net calls will be different, on-net calls will be charged @ Rs 1.50/min +tax where as Rs 1.70/min + tax will be charged for the off-net calls.
The Undertaking didn’t even state clearly the terms and conditions in its advertisement of Minute Package and this the violation of sub-section (1) of Section 10 in terms of clauses (b) of sub-section (2) of Section 10 of the Act.

The hearing of the case has been fixed on 9^th September 2011 and Warid has been given 14 days to file its written reply.

The main aim of Competition Act is consumer protection thus the consumers and businesses have a right to anticipate safety of goods and services they buy, and performance and the quality of the purchased products. So for that it is obligatory that the information should be accurate and fully described and should include the information that is required by law like price, weight, contents and other terms and conditions etc. It is important to mention that to protect customers and to prevent deception in marketing practices, the Office of Fair Trading of the Commission is working enthusiastically.Similar Posts:

Warid Launches Ramadan Packages!

Sc8uf — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:27:10 +0000

Warid Ramadan Rozana Offer!

Warid is offering exciting “Value package” in this blessed month in which the calls are free after 3 minutes and you can send around 250 free sms daily. If you are an internet user, then Warid has another package too, “Extra Value Package”, which has 500 free sms, 10MB free GPRS and free calls after 3^rd minute. The sms and GPRS are on daily basis.

So if u text or talk a lot or you are an internet freak, these Warid Ramadan Packages are fulfilling all of your needs at the same time. In addition to this, by subscribing to any of the Ramadan Packages, you will automatically qualify for the lucky draw that will be after Ramadan and can get a chance to win Umrah Return Ticket.

Value package:
In this package you will get Free Call after 3rd Minute (Warid to Warid) and Free 250 SMS Daily. Offer is valid from 3am to 6am and 3pm to 7pm daily.

Subscription:

To subscribe SMS “On” to 7860
Daily fee for Value Package is PKR 1.99 + tax.

Extra Value Package:
This offers you Free Call after 3rd Minute (Warid to Warid) and Free 500 SMS and 10MB GPRS Bucket Daily. The offer is valid from 3am to 6am and 3pm to 7pm daily.

Subscription:

To subscribe SMS “On” to 7861
Daily charges for Extra Value Package is PKR 3.99+ tax

How to unsubscribe:

To unsubscribe Value Package or Extra Value Package, SMS “Off” to 7862

Important to note:

If you subscribe once to theses packages they will remain active during Ramadan. No daily subscription is needed.
The offers would be activate from 1st of Ramadan till 28th of the Ramadan
Free SMS and GPRS bucket will expire daily
All Warid prepaid and Glow subscribers can benefit from this offer
The base tariff of Glow subscribers will be converted to Glow 2.0 if they subscribe to any of Ramadan Packages
Base tariff will be converted to ZEM 30 LCR of the Warid Prepaid subscribers if they switch to Ramadan Packages
The user would not be able to make any Call / SMS / MMS if account balance is not enough to deduct daily rental of Ramadan Packages until they recharge.
If Glow 2.0 subscribers will unsubscribe this offer or Ramadan Packages ends then their base tariff would be Glow 2.0
If Warid Prepaid subscribers will unsubscribe this offer or Ramadan Packages ends then their base tariff would be ZEM 30 LCR
F&F numbers will be added again once Ramadan Packages ends or if they unsubscribe to this Ramadan offer
Glow subscribers can use all Glow services with this offer except Bol Anmol and SMS bundles
Warid Prepaid subscribers can avail all Prepaid services except Bol Anmol and SMS bundles (SMS bundles combined with MMS / GPRS too)
19.5% FED on usage and 10% withholding tax at recharge or bill applies
Terms and condition apply
Using SIM without proper documentation is a crime – PTA

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Fake Mobile Scratch Cards Cause Rs 134m loss to Telecom Companies

Sc8uf — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:14:25 +0000

Apart from other crimes taking place in Pakistan, the fraud and theft cases in the Telecommunication industry witnessed in the recent past are gaining roots day by day. Recently it is revealed that many fake mobile cards of different companies were made by some criminals which resulted in a total loss of Rs 134 million to various mobile companies in Pakistan.

Initially this case was presented in front of the District and Session Judges in Islamabad. The case was then referred to the Additional Session Judge, Mr Kamran Basharat Mufti, by the judicial officer for more proceedings which are scheduled to be held on July 19.

A local telecommunication company submitted a complaint of this incident and an FIR was registered, under section 36,37 of Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2002, against 11 members of a gang for making fake mobile phone scratch cards.

On 16^th may 2008, a local telecom company lodged a protest with the FIA Director General Islamabad that due to the leakage of some important information some unkown persons have manufactured a large sum of fake scratch cards which are almost 17,750,000 in number. out of that 905,987 cards were sold in the local market which caused a total loss of 134.4 million to the company. For further proceedings this issue was referred to the FIA crime department which would submit its report on June 14^th 2008.

According to the information provided by the FIA, initially the case was given in the hands of Sub Inspector Farooq Latif who recommended for lodging an FIR against the alleged criminals.

During the inquiry that Usman Zafar who was a resident of sector G-11/3 Islamabad along with another man named Syed Nabi was found accused of making fake mobile scratch cards. Later it was also learnt that Usman Zafar was the ring leader of the group which made these cards illegally and it was proved by the allegations against Syed Nabi that he somehow sold fake scratch cards worth Rs 9 million. Both the accused criminals were not present in the inquiry proceedings which left no other option for the inquiry officer but to register a case against the accused. But Usman Zafar being aware of the danger had taken the precautionary measures and had left the country when police raided on his house soon after the inquiry. After almost 2 years on his return to Pakistan he was arrested, on October 22 2010. His physical remand was obtained by the police from the competent court from 23-11-2010 to 03-12-1010.

The investigating team had also given chance to the complainant throughout the investigation to provide sensible clues against the accused. Moreover, the other 10 members of the gang were also revealed as advancements took place in the investigation. Apat from the accused Usman Zafar, the other 10 members were Ghalib Virk, Zahid Sindhu, Haji Ramzan, Rizwan Ali, Asif Ch, Younas Khan, Jamal Raza, Kazim Shehzad, Rashid Ahmed and Syed Nabi.

As the story un covered, apart from making illegal scratch cards, the printing press where these scratch cards were made was also running illegally by the accused, where the scratch cards were developed. A raid was conducted there and it was learnt that the accused along with his other fellows printed scratch cards of different telecommunication companies which are providing service in Pakistan.

The sources from FIA informed that during the raid a printing press machine and scratch cards more than 50 million were found and taken into custody. FIA confirmed that all the gang members are not yet arrested and the agency is trying its best to trace and arrest them. Meanwhile Syed Nabi did not attend the investigations so the was declared absconder by the court.

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Cellular Company Employee Accused Funnelling Rs210 Million

Sc8uf — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 06:57:43 +0000

Employee of a cellular company accused of funnelling out over Rs210 million auditor’s investigations revealed that the suspects had been transferring huge sums of money into their accounts.

Embezzlement of more than Rs210 million by top and middle management officials in the finance department of a cellular services giant was reported to police on Friday.

The discrepancy in the accounts that led to the discovery of the embezzlement was discovered in November 2010, but the management reportedly hesitated in getting the police involved as it was hoping to use the threat of police action as a bargaining chip to force the embezzlers into returning the money.

The management of the telecom company hesitated over actually letting the suspects get arrested as they were hoping to use the threat of police action as a bargaining chip to force the return of the embezzled funds, sources said.

The police official investigating the case said that they were trying to obtain the exact details of the suspects’ whereabouts. He added that they could not be found at the addresses given on their National Identity Cards.

“We are looking for them and hope to nab them in a day or two,“ said the police official. Responding to a question, he said that the company’s management was not influencing the case in any way.

Other sources in the police told The Express Tribune that they believed the management was playing carrot and stick with the suspects, by pressurizing the police to have them arrested while simultaneously offering the alleged embezzlers a compromise if they agree to return the embezzled money.

Six officials from top, middle and lower management of the finance department, Usman Qayyum, Yasir Ali, Nadeem Afzal, Pervaiz Akhtar, Ali Nawaz and Muhammad Jamshed, were nominated in three different fraud cases.

Police said three lower management officials were based in franchises of the company in F-11, I-8 and Blue Area, while Qayyum and Ali were based in the head office of the company, where they were responsible for crediting money into company’s funds.

An investigation officer added that they were told by the company that the amount of embezzled money and the number of suspects might go up as they had decided to carry out a comprehensive internal inquiry.

The complainant, a senior manager in the company, told the police that the embezzlement was first discovered after an audit in November, 2010. Following the detection of fraud, Chartered Accountant Akhtar Aziz was hired to perform a thorough audit of funds.

The auditor’s investigations revealed that the suspects had been transferring huge sums of money into their personal accounts and those of their friends and family while crediting them in the company’s records. “Yasir and Qayyum received money from the franchises and other accounts and made transfers into their personal accounts, said a police official.

Police said the bulk of the embezzled amount was kept by the suspects in accounts which have not yet been identified, but the matter is “being looked into by the company’s internal auditors.

An official spokesperson for the company initially refused to comment on the issue, citing its status as a legal matter. Later he added, “FIRs were registered and obviously the police are doing their work to arrest the suspects.

Via Express Tribune

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19.5% GST on All Telecom Services From 1st August : Centres, Provinces

Sc8uf — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:54:43 +0000

In a meeting held in the finance ministry it was decided that GST of 19.5% will be applied on all telecom services from 1^st august. All finance secretaries and FBR chairman Salman Sadiq were present in the meeting and chaired by federal finance secretary Dr Waqar Masood.

According to sources all provinces and the federal government have agreed to introduce this single rate to remove prove problems in tax collection. Punjab ,KPK and Baluchistan had originally proposed a 16% sales tax on telecom services. These provinces will now have to amend their ordinances to apply the new uniform rate.

FBR has decided to impose the same tax rules during july 2011 that had been followed previously and apply the new rate with affect from august 2011.

Following the legal procedure first the FED has to be withdrawn on VAT mode by FBR on services and then Sindh can delegate powers to FBR for collection of sales of sales tax on collection services by issuing a notification. Sindh government claims that there are many services which involve input tax adjustments. Sindh sales tax on services act 2011 impowers the sindh revenue board to collect sales taxes on all but five services that would be covered by FBR.

This law had to be initially implemented last year but was delayed due to several reasons. Now the FBR and Sindh Revenue Board will do accounting procedure for determination of the input tax adjustment. The taxpayers should be given their right for claiming input tax adjustment.

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Ufone & Mobilink Will Deduct 1.1% Maintenance Charges From 1st July, 2011

Sc8uf — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:30:06 +0000

Ufone and Mobilink are the leading telecom operators and people of Pakistan are facing many taxes on every buying and recharging. Taxes and charges are directly implemented on the consumers and no one bothers about them. Telecom operators are working as per their routine and they don’t raise their voice for the reduction of taxes and we have not seen any retaliation from them till now.

Now Ufone and Mobilink will deduct 1.1% maintenance charges from 1st July 2011 on every recharge. The users of Ufone and Mobilink may have received the message on their cell phone number regarding these maintenance charges. Now everything we done on mobile phone are having charges. For example if you want to check your balance you will be charged certain amount. If you recharge your card; again some amount will be deducted from your recharged balance.

Message appears on Ufone’s website:

“Dear Customer, To further exceed your expectations, a maintenance charge of 1.1% will be applicable on every recharge from 1st July 2011 along with government taxes.”

Total taxes and charges collected at the time of recharge are as follows:

Withholding Tax: 10 %
GST/FED: 19.5 %
Service Charges: 5 %
Maintenance Charges: 1.1 %

The taxes from government are enough so we don’t need more charges from the cellular operators. Pakistan telecommunication authority should take notice of these upcoming charges. In future if this situation prevails maybe we can be charged on receiving or making a miss call. Mobilink and Ufone both are having large number of subscribers so they should take care of their consumers.

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Pakistan Cellular Coverage Hits 92%

Sc8uf — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:57:58 +0000

The umbrella of cellular services in the country has seen a rapid increase of about 30% in just six years. The teledensity has reached 62.5% from 33% in the year 2004 and 92% of Pakistan is covered.

Current number of cellular sites in the country has reached 30,417 from 2000 in just 6 years. The number of cellular subscribers has seen a massive growth and in 6 years 95 million subscribers have been added making a total of 100 million subscribers in 2010. Improving the cost and quality of voice has been the priority of cellular operators but now there is a shifting trend towards exploiting data and value added services. According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) government intends to announce 3G licensing policy soon which will further improve and add innovative options to the data services in Pakistan.

Latest statistics indicate that there has been an increase of 4.8 billion subscribers from June 2010 to January 2011 making the total subscribers 104 million.

Despite a dip in the revenues of 2 telecom giants in the quarter of September 2010 due to huge losses, cellular revenue stand at Rs 126.5 billion in July-December 2010. It should also be mentioned that 30,126 sell sites have been erected by June 2010 as compared to 30,169 at the end of December 2010.

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Communication and Transportation Are Like Engines For Country

Sc8uf — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:13:19 +0000

There are various things that are required for smooth running of a specific country. The needs and requirements can change with time but one cannot ignore communication and transportation at any point. We all are aware from its importance.

If we talk about Pakistan and its economy then what comes in mind according to new trends? Of course for that we need a proper and healthy way of communication and transportation. Transportation includes Roads, Rails, Waterways and airways and if you talk about communication then it includes Post Offices, courier Services, Wireless, Mobiles and Electronic Media.

Today we are going to have a look on communication side and especially the mobile communication that is much prominent these days. Telecommunication sector really contributes a lot in the country’s economy and it is the only sector that gives the most taxes. Not only taxes but it also provide great services to the people of country and directly facilitate them with latest communication trends.

With the help of advanced systems of communication like mobile phones, internet services, VOIPs, mobile phone banking etc. The lives of people have changed and become easy. The process of communication has enhanced certain businesses and takes much foreign investments in Pakistan.

Teledensity:

Now if you talk about the teledensity of Pakistan that is the growth of fixed, wireless landline phones and mobiles phones in Pakistan you will notice that it shows variation and it changes according to conditions. In 2009-10 the total teledensity become 62.5%. The cellular sector has contributed much in increasing teledensity. The mobile companies are now introducing low cost tariff plans so that the subscription of mobile phone users may get increased. The cellular sector contributed 94.6% in total teledensity, where fixed landline phones contributed 2.9 and wireless landline contributed just 2.5 in total teledensity.

In this graph you can see the growth of cellular subscribers from 2007-10. In 2010 the growth of cellular subscribers reaches to 102.8 million mark. So if you compare it with 2007 there is an increase of 14.4 million mobile phone subscribers.

Cellular mobile sector market share:

In Pakistan if you see the trend, it is of prepaid customers. The Postpay customers are very low because of the inflation in the country. Most of the people rely on mobile phone cards and easy loads. If you see PTA’s report you will notice that about 97% of market share is contributed by prepaid customers where as only 3% is contributed by Postpay customers.

In telecom sector each company plays its vital role and every user chooses its favorite service provider company according to its quality and rates. There are various cellular network providing companies such as Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong. All of these are in competition with each other and give their best every time. Mobilink is still having largest subscribers and at second number there comes Telenor. The reason behind the more subscriptions is their service quality.

Now see what will happen in future and our telecom sector still awaits 3G and 4G services, we are very hopeful to get these services within few years and government has to do serious work on it.

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Irrational Cellular Industry Taxes Should Be Noticed

Sc8uf — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:38:08 +0000

It is of no doubt that telecom sector plays an important and imperative role in Pakistan’s economy. Every person uses cell phone these days from elite to poor. As you all are familiar with bundle of taxes that are applied on telecom sector of Pakistan. Whenever a common person recharges a card or make easy load he get to know about these taxes but no one can do anything in this regard except government.

Now if you compare taxes you will know that the monies that are implemented on telecom industry are much higher and comparatively huge than other industries. Taxes that are applied on telecom industry are 19.5% and on other industries are 16%. The taxes on Pakistan telecom industry are also more than other Asian countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Indonesia etc.

Zafar Usmani, Chief Operating Officer Zong said:

“The cellular industry in Pakistan is already an overly taxed sector, which pays double taxes as compared with other countries of the world. If you look at the industry’s growth, it is not what it used to be and if we want to see another boom in the telecom sector we need to have lower taxes.”

Taxes on cellular industry that effect consumers:

Mainly there are three taxes applied on cellular sector.

1) FED
2) Withholding Tax (WHT)
3) Activation Tax

Federal excise duty applied on telecom industry of Pakistan should be brought in line with other industries. The amount of FED is just 16% for other industries but for telecom sector it is 19.5%. Now let me tell you about withholding tax WHT, this tax directly affect consumers, whenever a consumer recharge its account the certain tax deduct from his or her account. In present it is 11.5%, it should be reduced to 6%. This will greatly help the common people. The third main tax that is applied on cellular network company is activation tax, whenever a connection activated the amount of Rs.250 charged from the company in regard of activation tax.

If government can give certain relaxation on these taxes then cellular companies will be able to reach rural areas of country and the business of telecom industry will also increase.

Aamer Izhar ul Haq – Vice President Corporate Affairs & Security said:

“Telecom companies, which are operating in highly competitive environment, have worked hard to make service affordable for masses of the country however, increased taxation negatively impacts the service cost, which has resulted in slow down in the industry. The high taxation on telephony services is amongst the factors that has been negatively impacting the growth of the industry”

Now soon the budget will come, we are having certain positive expectations from the government regarding telecommunication and cellular industry of Pakistan. The imposition of further taxes should be taken to halt and government should help telecom sector in developing it to the roots of country.

[Source : ProPakistani]

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In Just Six Months 3.4 Billion Minutes Used For International Calls

Sc8uf — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:21:42 +0000

In this era of advance technology distances among people have reduced and one can connect with other in no time. In past times the process of communication was very slow and people used to communicate via posted letters.

In present times the very effective and easy source of communication is cell phones. They are portable and make you connect with the whole world every time and anytime without any hindrance. It will not be wrong if we say that cell phones have made us global creatures and anyone can access us from around the world.

Now coming towards Pakistan, you will be shocked by knowing this that in just six months the international traffic of cellular calls has reached 3.4 billion. It is no doubt a huge figure and one should think about this issue or fact.

Pakistan telecommunication authority (PTA) has reported that in previous month the international traffic of cellular calls was 2.8 billion and in this year it has increased by 22%. In future this will increase and all this happens because of the advancement in the technology and by low cost international tariff.

Now coming toward Short messaging service (SMS) which is also the effective means of communication and especially it is youth’s favorite due to its the least cost. During Jul-Dec 2010-11 100 billion SMS were recorded and if you compare it with previous two quarters that were 86 billion. So you have seen 16% increases in the SMS traffic.

Well lets talk about cellular networks now, Ufone is the leading cellular operator that has the largest figure of SMS, Telenor and Mobilink are on second and third number. Warid and Zong are having low traffic of SMS as compared to others.

This is all due to the different SMS packages that include daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly unlimited packages. Anyone can afford these and can avail these SMS packages. In coming future we are expecting the 3G and 4G services in Pakistan that will give new dimensions to the communication process.

Source : APP

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