Govt Raise Cell Phone Fees From $7.35 To $9.50
Following the Government’s increase of the Cellular Telephone Fee from $7.35 to $9.50 per month, Digicel is “obliged to collect from its customers on behalf of the Government,” with the fee to be charged on April 6 and May 1 for prepaid and postpaid Digicel customers, respectively.
The company said, “On the 31st March 2016 the Government announced an increase to the Cellular Telephone Fee from $7.35 to $9.50 per month.
“This fee is a charge that Digicel is obliged to collect from its customers on behalf of the Government on a pass through basis. The increase was effective as a cost to Digicel from 1st April 2016, but will only be effective for Digicel customers as follows:
- For Postpaid customers from 1st May 2016, applied as normal to the bill for that period
- For Prepaid customers from 6th April 2016, deducted on a prorated daily basis from available credit
“Digicel delayed pass through of the increase to provide some notice for its customers,” the company added.
“Despite the Government increase Digicel will continue, as it always has, to provide the best value smartphone plans in Bermuda.”
The Government Fees Amendment, which details the various new fees, follows below [PDF here]:
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More taxes to sustain a bloated civil service. How many more burdens can the government add before they admit we can’t carry like this?
Talk to Butch and Tweed.
Ya, and Hanbury STILL makes $1000,00 a day plus an $80,000 bonus for a failing Industry.
Where were you when the previous administration increased cell phone surcharge to $7.35? Always pointing fingers, but never taking the hand into consideration.
My Dentist and Lawyer make that in a day too , what’s your point.
Sooo just Digicel? Not Cellone?
Sadly as a CellOne user I can confirm that it went up for us too
So I just HAD to make sure that this was something affecting all cellphone customers…
http://www.cellone.bm/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Notice-Government-License-Fee-Increase-April-1-2016.pdf
The government fee must be collected by the carriers and passed to the government.
Slow simmer. Raise them some more. Tax should be $20 per phone. Got to pay for civil service and reduce debt. Good luck!
The reality is that we need more people in Bermuda. Less people equals higher taxes for the people left here.
People will realize this the poorer they get. The question is will people realize it too late?
Just imagine , back in the bad old days we got away with no debt and yearly balanced gov’t budgets of under $500,000,000 .
We didn’t need a bloated population to sustain ourselves because we lived within our means .
Just imagine the good old days when there weren’t any Cell Phones.
Correct
I don’t know about anyone else but the only realistic solution to our enormous debt has always been to raise taxes. I knew this would have to happen as soon as the PLP started borrowing just to cover expenses. You would have to be living under a rock not to know this was coming. Government doesn’t want to cut jobs to lower their operating costs so this is what happens. Time to tighten up again. I am truly amazed that more retail shops haven’t had to close their doors as I don’t know anyone that goes shopping anymore. It’s food, Belco, misc. bills and a little savings. Retail all over the world is dying a slow death as consumerism is no longer a viable way to grow the economy for a multitude of reasons. I don’t think things will ever “turn around” per se.
No we don’t need more people here.
yes we do.
And ironically its that very same bloated civil service that brought the Country to its knees last month leaving the Government cowering in the corner when they rose up and prevented their own employers from running the people’s business.
CellOne did it also. However they gave no notice!!!
I’m happy to do my part to ensure we have 9 Post Offices on an island with 65,000 people.
55 000 and dropping
Cell One has charged there new rate without notifying customers just looked at mine
yes we may need more people but they need to do it correctly as we are already over populated
The Bermudian people will begin to learn the hard way through their pockets, that we cannot continue to sustain ourselves without more $$$ coming in from expats living and working here. IF we do not make the Island attractive for people to live and work then we will continue to see our economy struggle and our taxes increase. We cannot pay the Civil Service/BIU wages without tax increases, their salaries eat up 80% of government revenues. The BIU declined the furlough day, they declined any cost cutting measure imaginable.
Churches are next!
That’s right keep milking us. When is it gonna end?
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop
I hate the O.B.A. Instead of them holding off on the 70+ million “America’s cup”, they would rather take funds from the people that are suffering already.
I bet you are walking around with an $800 dollar phone and complaining about a $2 fee hike. You and others like you are the reason that Bermuda is broken. Take your smart phone and make some calls to take advantage of the $70M investment that your government has made in YOU not the AC. That $70M is coming back tenfold baby but if you want it you gotta go get it yourself. Go google that.
And BTW there is no way you could be neutral with such a negative comment….perhaps change your name to spoiled brat.
Neutral – Do you understand that the Americas Cup is an investment? An investment that is projected to generate approx $250 million. Forgein currency pays ALL of our bills. Do you look forward to commission of enquiry as many of the rest of us do? $800 million unaccounted for under the PLP would pay a lot of our current bills.
I am SO looking forward to that. I want someone to blame even though its not going to change what already is, I truly think the taxpayers of Bermuda rightfully deserve to know how we managed to get into so much debt.
It is my understanding that the various government departments still rent office space, can they not use some of the empty class-rooms at different schools and ease the public purse which pays private enterprise ?
Was going tosay that at least the govt staff will have to pay this too, but then realized govt staff will just use their work phones, avoiding their contribution to the tax. SMH
While your at it tax everybody that swims in the ocean…