Govt plans to hike text messaging fees to fund education

MANILA, Philippines - Mobile phone subscribers in the Philippines may pay an additional P0.10 per text message, if a proposal calling for such a hike will be approved by Congress. Proceeds from higher text messaging fees – which may reach P200 million daily – will be used to finance free education nationwide, House Oversight committee chair Danilo Suarez said in a panel hearing on Wednesday. With at least 2 billion text messages being sent all over the country everyday, the government can use the revenue to help boost the education sector, he said. "There are more people texting than calling," Suarez told reporters after the hearing. However, he said there can be no guarantee that telecommunication companies (telcos) will not pass on the additional cost to mobile phone subscribers. Suarez added that Camarines Norte Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato, a former Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner, seeks to charge additional fees on mobile phone calling and internet costs should the text message cost hike secure approval. A "metering system" that will count the number of text messages being sent everyday will be put in place to ensure that the government collects the appropriate amount from telcos, he said. A technical working group that will be headed by Vinzons-Chato will further discuss the proposal during the Congress session break, but telcos’ representatives during the hearing expressed early on that there may be difficulties in implementing the proposed scheme. Lawyer Rodolfo Salalima, chief legal counsel and senior adviser of Globe Telecom, questioned how the additional cost will be applied since telcos offer various unlimited text and call promos. Salalima and other telcos' representatives however expressed willingness to sort out the issue during the technical working group meetings. - GMANews.TV