The mobile phone SIM-enabled telecommunication services will be costlier as the supplementary duty on the services was raised to 20 percent from 15 percent in the proposed National Budget for 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali placed the proposed budget in Parliament on Thursday afternoon.

In his maiden budget speech, the finance minister said, “I propose to fix 20 percent supplementary duty only upon the SIM/RUIM card enabled mobile telecom service (Service Code S012.10) instead of existing 15 percent.”

Besides, he proposed to fix TK 300 as Value Added Tax (VAT) for the supply of each SIM/e SIM card instead of the existing VAT amount of TK 200.

He, however, said the cost of the internet has been significantly reduced, and the opportunities for web-based employment and business have been expanded. In 2008, minimum cost of 1 Mbps fixed internet bandwidth was Tk 27000, whereas it is now only Tk 60. To extend these benefits to rural areas, high-speed internet has been expanded to union levels at low costs, he said.

 Ali said the number of mobile financial wallet users has surpassed 12 crore. With over 9,000 digital centres across the country and approximately 8,500 post e-centres and more than 16,000 entrepreneurs, including 5,344 women, citizens can access to necessary services. Additionally, to allow citizens to access services conveniently, over 2,400 services have been digitized.

He said the easy availability of the internet has increased its user base from 40 lakh in 2008 to nearly 12.92 crore by the end of January 2024. During this period, internet density in Bangladesh has risen to 75.12percent from just 2.7 percent in 2008, he said.