The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications said on Wednesday it was reviewing the Communications Service Tax (CST) Amendment Bill passed by Parliament Tuesday to set the tone for further consultation with government before it matures into law. The CST Amendment Bill seeks to legalize what the telcos describe as double taxation on talk. The original law placed a 6% tax on phone calls, but due to the interconnectivity arrangement between telcos, they end up paying additional 6% on termination rates to each other. The telcos have over the years sought to reverse this trend and stop the additional tax on the termination rate, but government has introduced the CST Amendment Bill to rather make that tax mandatory. Though the Bill has been passed by Parliament, it is yet to receive presidential assent before it becomes law. The Telecoms Chamber therefore said in a statement that telcos would assess the implications of the Act and communicate their recommendations to Government to inform further consultations before the Bill matures into law. The Chamber noted that government already captures 37% of telcos revenue as taxes, while year-on-year inflation for communications is 0.4% in 2012, compared to an overall average of 8.8%. This is because while prices are rising at an increasing rate in every sector, call rates have remained practically, and in some cases, reducing due to completion. “Mobile network operators have invested nearly six billion dollars in the Ghanaian economy and over 1.6 million jobs have been created by the telecoms industry directly and indirectly,” the statement said. It said studies have also shown that, 10% mobile phone penetration triggers economic activity and leads to 1.3% GDP growth. The recent past Minister of Communication, Haruna Iddrisu was reported as remarking in one of his departing statements that “telcos are the only friends of government in difficult times because any time government needed money to balance its books the telcos were more than willing to advance moneys to government.”