ISPs Rolls Back their Decision to Raise 13% Tax on Internet Fee

The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have decided to take back their decision of increasing taxes on the Internet by 13%. From mid-July, the ISPs had increased the Internet fees by almost 14% as the Government had decided to impose 13% telecommunication charges on the ISPs from the current fiscal year.

The recent decision to increase the internet fees was also accompanied by an increase in telecommunication services, they were included in the federal budget of 2057/76.

This decision is not altogether taken back. According to the new agreement, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will not charge the additional 13% tax levied by the Nepal Telecom to the customers.

The ISPs still have to pay the telecommunications service fee to the government. However, only those customers who are registered for home service will benefit from this new agreement, as corporate customers have to pay the 13% tax.

This agreement was made after a meeting held between the two parties, ISPs and Ministry of Industry and Communications. The government pressurized ISPs to not increase the fees on the customers based on the fact that the price of international bandwidth had been dropping significantly in the past few years.