Mobile taxes way too high, int’l group says

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Taxes on cell phones in 2011 were 48.2 percent of total mobile ownership in Turkey. Company photo

The GSM Association (GSMA) has asked the Turkish government to cut high taxes on mobile businesses, so that all stakeholders can benefit.

The GSMA outlined findings from its “Mobile telephony and taxation in Turkey” report, which was undertaken by Deloitte to examine the economic impact of mobile telephony and the impact of mobile-specific taxation in Turkey, according to Telecompaper.com, a sector news portal.

Taxes in 2011 represented 48.2 percent of the total cost of mobile ownership on average in Turkey, according to the report. The global average is 18.2 percent.

Mobile penetration in Turkey also still lags behind other European and neighboring countries, the study said. An analysis of countries that had a lower penetration than Turkey in 2000 showed that penetration in all of these countries had outpaced Turkey by 2011.

In 2011, the mobile industry contributed 28.8 billion Turkish liras to the Turkish economy, which stands at approximately 2.3 percent of the national income, it said.