It is expected that when the House of Representatives meets on Friday, government will impose an increased business tax on telecommunication companies, taking it from 19% to 24.5%. That’s the difference of millions of dollars for the countries largest telephone company, BTL – but from what we saw today, they can probably afford it!
7NEWS has obtained the Report of the Directors circulated within BTL and it says that the phone company’s revenues shot up last year, from $140 million to $156,938,000. That’s an increase of over $16 million. And from that it also derives a record net profit of $37.8 million.
And where does all that money come from? Well, from all those phone credits you’ve been buying. The Directors’ Report states that the increase in revenue derived chiefly from a $13.8 million increase in earnings from pre-paid service. Also of interest in the report is the fact that the total number of cellular customers at March 2008 were 144,000 subscribers – an increase of 23% year on year.
And while it earns plenty, BTL also pays the most taxes in the country, somewhere upwards of $25 million annually – that would go up quite a bit with the proposed adjusted business tax. A Directors’ Report is usually prepared in advance of a annual general meeting, but BTL hasn’t held one of those since last year.
