Mobile and Internet tariff going high: Are you prepared?

When Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada was going to present the annual budget for the fiscal year 2075-76, everyone was excited. However, the excitement went in vain when he read more of the documents he carried. The displeasure was more pronounced in the Nepali tech industry. Smartphones’ price in Nepal got increased almost in no time due to the cancellation of VAT return convenience. Now another post-budget consequence that lies right ahead of us is the hike in the mobile and internet tariffs.

As announced by the Minister of Finance, ISPs and telecoms now have to pay 13% Telecom Service Cost (TSC) to the government. So the telecoms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will surely be going to hike their tariffs. As mentioned on the announcement, TSC will be levied to the Telecoms and ISPs from the Shrawan 1 of 2018 (July 17, 2018) or the from the first day of the new fiscal year.

Executives from the Telecoms and ISPs in agony say that it was announced in the budget without any prior notice or information. Even after the announcement, they even tried to woo the concerned authorities to take back the step. However, the ministry officials remain reluctant for any change in the decision. So the every attempted from the Telecom and ISPs’ officials turned futile. Now the users are on the verge of paying an extra high phone and internet bills in a regular fashion.

According to the current statistics from the Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA), the telephone and mobile phone users in Nepal are more than 38.5 million. Also, the broadband internet users have surged at an unprecedented rate and crossed over 14.35 million. And now, all these populations is going to get affected with this price hike.

How much will be the increment?

Here is the general insight of the price hike on the internet and mobile tariffs.