ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: More attractive packages will be announced in a week or so for the benefit of telephone subscribers keeping in view their income level, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari said on Friday.
Replying to a supplementary question during the question- hour session of the National Assembly, the minister said Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) had passed on the benefit from its profits to its customers by giving up Rs6 billion under a recently announced relief package.
The decision of slashing line rent by Rs100, reducing new connection installation charges and doubling the off-peak local call duration from five minutes to 10 minutes was taken on the direction of President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and following the policy of the government to facilitate the people.
He said reduction of installation charges for new telephone connection in the rural areas from Rs1,850 to Rs500 would help in increasing tele-density in these areas.
This package would not only facilitate the existing PTCL subscribers, but also motivate a number of new clients, especially from the rural areas, to acquire connections, he said. It was a long standing demand of the PTCL subscribers to reduce different services offered by the PTCL, he added.
Mr Leghari said the telephone tariff in the country for Nation Wide Dialling and international calls had been reduced from November 1. The telephone tariff for line rent and installation charges would be reduced from December 1, 2003.
Later, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed appreciated the government’s decision of providing relief to the people by reducing telephone line rent and said this decision was an example of implementing the directions of the president and prime minister given during a recent meeting with the telecom minister.
Sheikh Rashid said the government would also provide relief in different sectors for the benefit of the common people by further reducing prices of electricity, basic necessities of life and increasing salaries of the people.
Speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain also appreciated the step.
Meanwhile, Awais Leghari said to create job opportunities for IT graduates, the government intended to give software contracts worth Rs1.5 billion to different local software industry. Such contracts would create demand for IT-related services in the country, he said.
About the mushroom growth of IT institutions and the quality of education these institutions were imparting, the minister said the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had been asked to set up an accreditation council for monitoring the performance and improving the standard of education in these institutions.