Zain Iraq: We are obliged to impose 20% tax on refill cards

to impose a tax on the sales of account refill cards.

The company said in a statement, received by Shafaq News, that they would like to note , at a time when our company has received the Iraqi government's decision to impose sales tax of 20% , we will impose a rise in mobile phone cards’ prices of all categories and emphasizes to its subscribers that this decision is binding on it .

The statement added that the Iraqi government, which approved the law after the approval of the Iraqi parliament has embarked upon the application of the tax law, starting from this August 1, according to the Council of Ministers issued a decision in May last month

Article 33 of the general budget of the Federal Law No. 2 of 2015 passed in the end of January this year of Executive information No. 5 issued in 04/05/2015 the imposition of sales tax on mobile phones refill account cards for all lines as well as Internet services by 20%.

Zain Iraq made it clear that as a result of the application of this law , this will not enter into its accounts and will not benefit from imposing the tax but on the contrary it will affect its sales and revenue, our company’s role is only limited to the collection and supply of tax to the Finance Ministry by the General Authority for taxes.

The mobile phone companies, announced last Friday the start for the imposition of 20% as a "sales tax" on cards and electronic refill cards for mobile phone companies, and the decision to impose the tax is applied due to the decision of the Ministry of Finance.

Iraqis have protested on the start of the decision to impose a 20 percent tax on refill cards for mobile phones through the pages and social networking sites.