October 25, 2003	Saturday	Sha’aban 28, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) on Friday sought approval to reduce nationwide and overseas call tariff by 15.34 and 23 per cent, respectively, with effect from Nov 1, but has not offered any reduction in fixed line rent.

The telecom utility told the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) during an “Open Forum” organized by the PTA that relief had also been proposed for IT industry including internet service providers (ISPs) and local telephone users. The tariffs would be implemented after PTA’s approval.

The nationwide call rates for distance exceeding 160 kilometres had been reduced from Rs10.04 to Rs8.50 per minute registering a reduction of 15.34 per cent. The rates of distance from 80 to 160 kilometres had been reduced from Rs7 to Rs6.50 per minute.

PTCL Chairman Akhtar Ahmad Bajwa and Mashkoor Hussain, business development and marketing member, while responding to complaints and queries during the forum explained that the PTCL had also reduced overseas call rate by 23 per cent.

However, per minute call rate for countries like Australia, Brazil, Brunie, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Libya, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, UAE, UK and USA were Rs39, which had been fixed at Rs30 per minute. The company had retained Saarc countries tariff for one minute at Rs25.

Meanwhile, PTA Chairman Shahzada Alam Malik said the authority would soon issue a determination on the fixed line PTCL tariff proposal for the year 2003-04 submitted to PTA, after taking into account valuable suggestions and input to provide maximum relief to the service users.

He said the revised PTCL tariff structure did not include any provision for reduction in line rent or local call charges.