SUVA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Telecommunication service providers in Fiji will now have to pay the government 10 Fijian cents (about 4 U.S. cents) levy for every gigabyte of data used by their customers as the Fijian parliament passed the Telecommunication Amendment Bill on Thursday.
Fiji's Attorney General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that the government had to introduce this policy as revenue for the Telecommunication Development Trust Fund had significantly dropped its revenue collection over the years.
He said this trust fund was established to collect levy that was charged on all incoming international calls and as a result of that the government was able to raise funds that were later invested in the telecommunication sector.
Sayed-Khaiyum said that revenue collection had significantly dropped as most people do not make voice calls now and simply web chat, use Facebook messenger or make Viber calls. The trust fund will provide community outreach connectivity in Fiji.
"In order for us to be able to continue to invest in the telecommunication sector, in particular for those areas, or those sectors of the population where we have very low population density, we need to be able to have funds for that and indeed many countries have adopted this approach," he said.
