Impact of GST on Mobile Bills: All You Must Know

Like it or not, but you must accept that the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) subsidiary named Reliance Jio has brought a gigantic telecom revolution in the country, a revolution undoubtedly like no other.

Reed Hastings, co-founder and chief executive of Netflix, on his recent trip to India said, “We're seeing Internet data costs -- from 20 years ago to now -- continuing to drop. Of course with Reliance Jio, no one has (d) ever seen a free mobile network that cost 20 billion dollars to build. It's one of the more extraordinary things anywhere in the world. We are excited to be part of that because the viewing of our shows has gone up a lot on the Jio network.”

The revolution Jio started, reined other telecom service providing companies from overcharging customers for inefficient/inadequate services. Moreover, Jio also helped in stopping the incumbent players providing low-quality services, and as a result, we can clearly see that they are now offering talk time and data packs at a very less cost along with improved and enhanced connectivity.

Interestingly, the coming July 1 is also believed to bring one more revolution in the telecom industry of India. The upcoming July 1 has been fixed as the implementation date for Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India, which is considered to be one of the greatest tax reforms ever in the country.

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is going to be implemented focusing on bringing a new tax regime in India, under which all the indirect taxes levied by the central and state governments will get merged into a single tax. Under the new tax regime, basic needs of a person such as foodgrains, milk etc are set to become more affordable whereas other requirements like mobile phone bills are set to get a hike.

According to business management consultant firm SKP Group, “Being a regressive taxation system, the burn of increased tax rates will directly be faced by the end consumer unless the credit is passed on to the next in the business chain.”

So, if you are a postpaid customer, and are paying Rs 1,000 on an average, you will be charged 30Rs more after the implementation of GST, whereas, if you are a prepaid customer, you will get Rs 82.20 talk time instead of Rs 83.96 for a 100 Rs recharge pack.

Also Read: Impact Of GST On The GDP Of The Indian Economy in 2017

Rajan Mathews, director general of industry body COAI said, “Telecom industry hails GST as an iconic reform but we are disappointed with announced rate of 18 per cent. It will augment the existing burden of the industry further. This is also likely slow down the planned rollout of infrastructure across the country.”