Editor, ALLOW ME to react to the story, “Telecoms advise govt against proposed 10% tax on airtime” which was published in this newspaper on June 5. Before we talk about the proposed 10% tax on airtime, I think that Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (Rura) should investigate how telecoms are conducting business because some are intentionally cheating customers. People have been complaining about their airtime being taken under unclear circumstances, about high internet charges whenever one isn’t subscribed to bundles...the list of complaints is endless. There are also some instances where subscribers are cheated whenever they make international calls to countries that telecoms have themselves advertised as “cheaper calling”. For instance, you are told that calling Canada is Rwf30 a minute, but you do that and you’re charged about Rwf400 per minute. You try to complain and telecom operators tell you that their file shows that you have been on phone for about 10 minutes, while you know very well that your call didn’t last even for one minute. It’s time for Rura to intervene and save customers from this. Otherwise some of us have lost all the confidence in telecoms. If this 10% tax is voted upon, I’m afraid that we are going to suffer even more. What makes me anxious is the way respective regulatory bodies seem indifferent on this issue. It looks like they have given a green light to telecoms to punish us. Something has to be done. Dan Rumanzi, Rwanda
