Africa's Mobile Industry to Pay $71 Billion in Tax By 2012
29 May 2008 09:00 Africa/Lagos Africa's Mobile Industry to Pay $71 Billion in Tax By 2012 JOHANNESBURG, May 29/PRNewswire/ -- - GSMA Says Cutting Mobile-Specific Taxes Would Boost Government Revenue The mobile industry will generate $71 billion in tax revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2012, but that figure would be higher still if governments removed taxes that treat mobile phones and services as luxury goods, according to research commissioned by the GSMA. The research by Frontier Economics found that uptake of mobile services in the region is being held back by mobile-specific taxes on handsets, airtime and telecom equipment, which increase costs for consumers and deter investment by mobile operators. If all mobile specific-taxes in Sub-Saharan Africa had been removed in 2007, an additional 43 million people in the region would be connected by 2012 leading to an increase in overall tax receipts of $930 million between 2007 and 2012, according to the research....