Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has levied Rs 199 as "Pakistan Package" charges on all telephone bills for the month of December 2007, which would take out more than Rs 960 million from the pockets of about five million landline users without their consent.
The increase in central excise duty (VAT Mode) and withholding tax has also increased correspondingly on each bill. "Pakistan Package" scheme to provide inter-city phone call facility for 5,000/500 minutes within Rs 199 has caught many people unaware because of their innocence.
The bill has two deceptive instructions: (1) maximum use is restricted to 500 calls (Ziada Say Ziada Istemal 500 minute mehdod Kar Diya Gaya Hai), (2) maximum usage quota of 5,000 minutes. Which claim of the PTCL is valid and should be relied upon?
Many customers could not make difference between bold lettering "All calls free" and minutely inscribed lettering "from one city to another" on bills. The company did not take consent from its customers and activated all landlines irrespective of the consideration that many users had already limited their phones only for local calls.
In other words, calls from their phones were restricted to city they were living in. After the introduction of the "Pakistan Package" scheme all landlines have inter-city calling facility, weather they liked it or not.
The bill for the month of December, for which last date for payment is January 28, has come as a surprise to a large number of people, who even did not know about the scheme. They are running from pillar to post for the explanation of this unforeseen charge under the heading "Pakistan Package".
The noticeable thing is that despite the facility of 5,000 or 500 minutes in Rs 199, bills for the month of December, to be paid in January, have shown separate "local call charges." There is no explanation if all 5,000/500 minutes available in Rs 199 have been consumed and the "local call charges" are in addition to that facility charges.
The helpline PTCL has created for the convenience of its customers is always busy with traffic. In the meantime, Chairman of Alliance of Market Association Atique Mir, in a press statement, has condemned the PTCL for arbitrary imposition of "Pakistan Package."
He demanded its immediate withdrawal within three days, and suggested making it an optional facility. He said that the PTCL landline users' queue outside the PTCL offices for deletion of "Pakistan Package" charges of Rs 199 from their bills had proved failure of the scheme.
Mir said that the failure to withdraw this package within three days would compel the shopkeepers to stop payment of bill to the PTCL and stage sit-in before its offices.