Karachi :Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said pandemic has increased dependence on smartphones and internet services therefore the government should cut taxes on this important sector and take steps to improve its quality.

Presently 980 million people are connected to the internet wirelessly while twenty million are using wired internet but the majority is not getting quality services, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that substandard services and frequent disruptions hit masses and damaged businesses during the lockdown, while the initiative of online classes failed in almost all the areas prompting parents to pull their children out of schools to avoid paying fees unnecessarily.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that government must revisit telecom policies to ensure national development and reduce the gap between rich and poor for which taxes should be reduced while companies should be directed to improve quality of their services.

He noted that consumers are paying up to 30 percent taxes of mobile services which are highest in the world which must be reduced as it is no more a luxury but a necessity therefore prices of cell phones should also be reduced.

Pakistan lags behind in telecommunication services from India, Bangladesh, and Nepal which is blocking empowerment of the masses.

He said that pandemic has increased digital payments by 30 percent which will increase by the passage of time however, criminals are using the trend therefore internet security and cybercrimes system should be strengthened, he observed.

The business leader said that the exports of telecommunications, computer, and information services have jumped by 44 percent to $1.51 billion while timely improvement in policies would have helped a 100 percent increase in exports.