Govt wants to curb freedom of expression by irrational tax on SMS: Youngsters suspect

[Naveed Yaseen]

(Naveed comments: The raised suspicion appears to have weight, otherwise there is no sense in imposing Rs 0.20 tax per item which is not even sold on per item basis, but per package basis)

Noor Aftab
With most of the people reviewing various aspects of the federal budget 2009-10, the ‘fun loving’ segments, especially youngsters who constitute almost 54 per cent of the total population, are quite perturbed over imposition of 20 paisa tax per SMS.

They feel that they may be deprived of enjoying this facility at really affordable prices.

According to unofficial data, out of 90 million registered cellular customers, over 45 million use the SMS service, each sending an average of seven SMS daily. SMS traffic in the country is estimated at around 315 million daily and monthly traffic at around one billion. The Pakistani market is very responsive to SMS-based packages. There has been tremendous growth in SMS usage, estimated at 30 per cent in recent years.

Pakistan is one of the top most countries where use of SMS service increased dramatically in the recent years that made cellular operators to introduce new packages time and again to facilitate those users who love using this service round the clock. “In a society where people generally find limited or sometimes no recreational activities, exchanging SMS is a fun among millions of people. Now imposition of tax means the government wants people not to enjoy any facility that helps them get amusement in the face of increasing social problems and deteriorating law and order situation,” said Qosain Pasha, a student of Iqra University.

The cellular operators introduced various packages to provide their users with facility of sending unlimited SMSs at limited cost that promoted ‘SMS culture’ especially among young people who are often seen swiftly running their fingertips on keypads of their cellular phones. “Now people will not send SMS to each other, and during birthdays , or Eid, there would be no crazy fun loving sms around. And second, the poor who totally relied on SMS because it was cheapest , have some thing to get worried about,” said Nazia Shakoor, a student at the Government Girls College (Satellite Town).

At first SMS service was used to communicate with other people, but now it has become one of the effective means to spread a viewpoint over any social or political issue among millions of people in the span of few hours. Some of the people alleged that the government wants to mute voice of the people who freely express their views through SMS without facing any censorship or restriction from any quarter. “I think circulation of huge number of SMS against top political personalities is the main reason behind imposition of tax on SMS. If this is the case then the government should have introduced some codes of conduct instead of putting financial pressure on the subscribers,” said Yunus Malik, a software engineer.

Many people believe that excessive use of SMS service is showing various negative impacts among the people especially school children who now love using short words instead of full sentences to communicate their message. “Parents and teachers should guide their children and students not to use SMS service in a way that harms their writing skills,” said Naureen Akhtar, a local schoolteacher. “I personally believe that students waste their precious time in sending or receiving SMS that can be better used for their studies,” she said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=183437