New communications minister unclear over whether phone tax will go ahead

The new communications minister, Stephen Timms, has said that it is now unclear as to whether the proposed tax on landlines will still go ahead before the general election, which is expected in the spring.

It was announced earlier this year by the government that consumers may be charged fifty pence a month or six pounds a year in tax on their land telephone lines, and the purpose of this new levy was to fund investment in superfast broadband. The announcement was made under the then communications minister, Stephen Carter.

However, since that time a new communications minister has replaced Carter, and he has recently cast some doubts over whether this tax will still go ahead. The new communications minister, Stephen Timms, has said that it is not clear whether the tax will come into play before the next general election, which is expected to take place next spring.

The purpose of the tax was to try and raise around one hundred and fifty million a year extra to fund the investment needed in superfast broadband. However, whilst the new tax formed a key part of raising money in the Digital Britain Report that was released under Carter, Timms stated: “If the question is, is the levy definitely going to be legislated for this side of the election, I can’t say for sure.”

Whilst Timms hinted that any further action over this tax could be left until after the general election he did state that a series of other measures were set to be b rought before parliament in the autumn, and this included further crackdowns on illegal file sharers with the possibility of Ofcom being given greater powers to try and handle this sort of situation.

Source – Times Online