NewsRescue
Nigeria blows up data charges to tax Nigerians abroad to fund economy in recession.
From 2c/minute to call from America, the rates increased overnight to 10c/minute after the ministry of communications slammed the new taxes. A new 10% tax was imposed on phone calls, text messages and data.
This adds on all subsidies removed, road and power taxes being added and other levies tapping funds from Nigerians at home and abroad to pay government salaries and fund the economy. The naira crashed to N500 the dollar this week, however Nigeria’s business tycoons are still being provided government-subsidized forex at the official N305 rate, thus making a killing while the masses at home and abroad are being slammed various forms of taxes including the latest phone and data taxes.
Minister Adebayo Shittu
An international call company though which Nigerians abroad call home, described the impact in an email to their clients thus:
As you might know, Nigeria is going through a serious recession right now. One way the government is trying to cope is by taxing Nigerians living abroad.
The way they’ve done it is by increasing the cost of calls to Nigeria by more than 600%. That means that we –and all other international calling providers such as Boss Revolution and calling cards – now pay much more to connect your calls.
For Nigeria, that’s great. Now they have more money to help fix the economy. For us, that sucks, because calling Nigeria costs more than ever before. As a result, we’ve had to change the number of minutes on our Nigeria subscription to 80. Even so, you’ll still be getting the best deal on the market.
Nigeria’s rates won’t stay like this forever. As the government starts lowering their prices, we’ll add more minutes to your subscription. And whenever there’s any kind of change, you’ll be the first to know.
/Rebtel Team