The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) has rejected the planned tariff hike of telecommunication services in Nigeria.

Sources in the telecom industry said last week that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had given an approval to the Telecommunication Service Operators to hike their tariffs this January and the approved increment would see the current tariffs rise by about 40%.

But NCC has neither denied nor confirmed the supposed increment.

However, NATCOMS in a communique issued after an emergency meeting in Lagos yesterday considered “The decision of the NCC as very insensitive and not in the interest of Telecoms Services Consumers”.

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In the communique jointly signed by NATCOMS’ President, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo and the National Secretary, Barrister Bayo Omotubora respectively said the new increment would be one additional burden too many for Nigerian telecom users.

“The unrelenting rise in prices of goods and services in the country has made life extremely difficult for the generality of citizens who are the consumers of Telecom Services. The new increment is therefore one additional burden too many.

“Under the new tariffs regime, voice calls will rise from N11.00 to N15.40 per minute, short message services will jump from N4.00 to N5.60 and One GB data bundle will move from N1,000 to N1,400. This represents additional digital costs consumers will have to square up with at the beginning of a new year among other harsh economic realities of Nigeria of today.

“This, undoubtedly, is against public interest contrary to the false narrative of NCC that described the recent adjustments as pro-public interest”, NATCOMS said.

It said the increment is an attempt to price telecoms services out of the reach of the generality of the citizens of the country.

It added: “Telecom Services are taxable services under the Value Added Tax Act. The Act was amended in 2019 by the Finance Act of that year to raise the tax rate from 5% to 7.5% which was 50% increment and the increment has been borne by the consumers of rateable Telecom Services. That increment brought about untold hardship to our members, many of whom have been forced to cut back on their telecommunication requirements.

“As if that was not bad enough, the federal government got the National Assembly to enact the Finance Act of 2020. Section 37 of the Act amended Section 21 of the Customs, Excise Tariff etc. (Consolidation) Act by imposing an excise duty charge on Telecommunication Services. The then president, Muhammadu Buhari by an order prescribed 5% as the rate of the excise duty charge, chargeable for Telecommunication Services…”

The subscribers association said it is aware of the arguments of the Telecom Operators that there has not been any tariff increment in a decade, multiple levies slammed on them by different levels / tiers of government and the dollarisation of the costs of their equipment.

“But if the truth be told, there are many other avenues through which the operators can generate funds to meet their rising operational costs without putting an unbearable burden on their consumers”, it added.

It therefore called on the NCC to nullify the approval given for the tariff hike and advise the operators to embrace other options of generating funds for their operations.