Cellphone firm CEOs meet Mgimwa

Top mobile phone company officials share views after meeting Finance minister William Mgimwa in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Nothing was said about what they agreed, if anything, in the meeting.
Dar es Salaam. CEOs of major mobile companies yesterday held a closed-door meeting with Finance minister William Mgimwa, a day after the government said it was open to dialogue over the disputed new Sim card tax charges.

The executives have in recent weeks been pushing the government to review the Sh1,000 monthly charges on Sim card holders for all mobile phone companies.

Top officials from Vodacom Tanzania, Airtel, Tigo and Zantel met the minister for two hours after other attempts to have the tax reviewed appeared to yield no fruits.

The mobile service providers who appeared united after their meeting with the minister avoided talking to our reporters who had camped at the ministry premises, expecting to learn what had transpired in the meeting.

At around 4 pm the mobile operators came out of the meeting and stood outside the ministry where they chatted among themselves for almost 10 minutes before they left.

“I will talk, but not today. My office will be open tomorrow,” said Vodacom Tanzania managing director, Rene Meza.

Other officials who attended the meeting also declined to talk to our reporter and directed the latter to the minister whom they claimed was the right person to talk about issues that were discussed in the get-together.

The government’s decision to meet mobile operators can be described as a deliberate move to open dialogue on some taxes in the telecommunication sector which have been raising concern among the public.

Such pressure led the Finance minister this week to announce that the government was ready for talks on among others, the Sh1,000 monthly charge on Sim cards.

Finance minister William Mgimwa, however, cautioned that since the Sh1,000 tax was aimed at raising about Sh160 billion to help address rural poverty, the discussion should be directed at identifying alternative sources of revenue.

The government has been facing pressure from mobile operators and the public who feel that the communication sector needs to contribute more to the growth of the national economy.

Through the Mobile Association of Tanzania, the phone companies issued a statement in the media calling upon the government to withdraw the Sh1,000 tax charges on Sim cards in order to enable more Tanzanians to own mobile phones.