Gadgets & Gizmos

Ufone has announced to deduct 1.1 percent maintenance charges on all recharges (through Ushare/ topup/ scratch card) from July 1st, 2011.
Update: Mobilink will deduct 1 percent of all reloads – check below for more details
Meaning that, anyone loading a Rs. 100 card will have to pay Rs. 1.10 as maintenance charges.
Here is the message that is being sent to Ufone customers, and is flashing on Ufone’s website as well:

Dear Customer, To further exceed your expectations, a maintenance charge of 1.1% will be applicable on every recharge from 1st July 2011 along with government taxes.

It merits mentioning here that all cellular companies are already deducting 5 percent for all reloads as service charges, since July 2009.

At the time of account recharge, a service charge of 5% (on scratch card/utopup face value) + Government taxes will be applicable on all transactions via UTopup or scratch cards, effective from 1st July 2009.

Here is the list of charges/taxes a Ufone customer will have to pay after July 1st, 2011:

• Withholding Tax: 10 %
• GST/FED: 19.5 %
• Service Charges: 5 %
• Maintenance Charges: 1.1 %

We fear that other telecom operators will follow Ufone to apply similar charges.
If PTA remains quite, which it is, you can expect more charges from cellular companies, such as: Call initiation charges, call termination charges, spectrum access charges, miss call charges and more…
Update:
Mobilink joins Ufone, and will be Charging 1 percent of the recharge amount from it’s prepaid customer. They have called it operational charges, a new name with same meanings.
Here is what Mobilink has to say:

1% operational fee will be applicable on all recharge through jazz load (applicable from July 1st, 2011)