The Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan has proposed to collect taxes for messenger voice calls.  Mobile phone operators are preparing reply letter to the communications service agency.  

The Tax Committee has recently proposed to consider the possibility of collecting payment for additional services, namely for the use of voice traffic of WhatsApp, Viber and other cross-platform messaging and voice over IP (VoIP) applications, Ghafour Irkayev, the head of the Association of Mobile Phone Operators of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

This move is reportedly aimed at increasing receipts to the country’s budget.  

According to Irkayev, the mobile phone operators are preparing a reply letter to the relevant bodies.  “In the letter, they will submit their proposals and explanations,” Irkayev said.

The Tax Committee reportedly demands that mobile phone operators the number of minutes of conversations of their subscribers through messengers and in accordance with this pay taxes to the budget.   

Meanwhile, Irkayev says it is technically impossible to calculate the number of minutes of conversations through messengers.