The Ministry of Finance has disclosed that over Rs. 3 trillion has been collected from mobile phone taxes from users over the last five years. The figures are the ones submitted to the national assembly that show a grand total income of Rs 3.38 trillion from mobile users during the periods under study. As of August 2024, Pakistan had 193.098 million cellular subscribers.
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By the way, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed that, in just four months, gas prices soared an astonishing 800%. A National Assembly session presided over by Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah was called to discuss this added cost. Among the other points raised in the session was that inflation in food was generally spiking, with sugar and palm oil gaining ground at an annualized 53.5 and 61%, respectively, for the past five years. The PBS also indicated price rises of the same period at 35% in the prices of soybean oil, wheat, and crude oil.
Officials have attributed all this inflation to hikes in electricity and gas tariffs, part of Pakistan’s obligations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Media ascribed raises in gas tariffs of increase 520 in November 2023 and 319 in February 2024 along with increases of 35 in electricity tariffs in November 2023 and 75 in February 2024.