Celtel urges govt incentives for expansion to unviable areas

Celtel urges govt incentives for expansion to unviable areas
By Kabanda Chulu
Monday July 28, 2008 [04:00]

CELTEL Zambia managing director David Venn has said it is difficult for the company to expand to areas that are not economically viable because of lack of incentives from government. And Celtel Zambia’s revenue has increased to K590 billion from K447 billion during the past six months ending June 2008.

Presenting the financial interim results last Friday, Venn said Celtel Zambia would continue to press government for relief when expanding to rural areas.
He said it was difficult to roll out its services further because of various factors such as the 25 per cent import duty on all equipment.

“It is just too expensive to venture into areas that are not economically viable especially that returns are minimal but we shall continue pressing the government for relief so that these areas can also be developed,” Venn said. “Our main challenges are that import duty on all equipments stands at 25 per cent and all towers and transmitter stations are run 24 hours by diesel powered generators hence asking for some kind of relief.”
He explained that the tariff rates by Celtel Zambia were not the highest in the country but that the cost of doing business was still high.

“We are not expensive it is because the cost of doing business is high when considering other variables such as taxes, for example, 50 per cent of all rates is tax meaning that when you pay K10,000 half of it goes to government as taxes,” Venn said.

And Celtel Zambia’s revenue for the period ending June 2008 increased to K590 billion from last year’s K447 billion during the same period.