Supply-side debate in Lebanon, but not in London

July 16, 2004
Friday

Supply-side debate in Lebanon, but not in London

Antoine Clarke (London) Globalization/economics

(0)

There is a tax strike in Lebanon against government levies on mobile phone charges.

This is pure supply-side economics coming from Zuheir Berro, the president of Consumers Lebanon:

Berro also refuted allegations that the government needed to charge high fees to insure more income. "This is a random policy which will get us nowhere," he said. We still have a very high capacity for subscriptions and if they lower the fees, then subscriptions will multiply," he added.

Lebanon has a 24 percent level of subscribers, compared to over 80 percent in industrialized countries, according to Berro.

The high subscription and communication fees, according to the group, are hindering the country's development and investments.

Meanwhile British MPs are demanding extra local taxes, in addition to the existing local property and business taxes because it is the key to 'democracy'.

Comments

I wonder if Skype + WLANs + population density = free calls?

Posted by Rob Read at July 16, 2004 06:29 PM

Skype (or any VoIP) = nearly free calls. WLANs will help push the product. Look for massive US regulation in this area in 2005. Sigh.

Posted by BB at July 17, 2004 02:23 AM

The income tax in Lebanon (last time i was there,) was 10%. Not bad. But here's the wrinkle: hardly anyone actually pays them anyway. So I'm not sure what a tax strike will accomplish anyway.

Posted by Joe at July 17, 2004 02:39 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?
YesNo

Enter anti-spambot Turing code:

Comments:

Basic html active.

Alas, but for obscure reasons Mozilla, Mac and Linux users shall not harness to power of the push-button formatting options and shall therefore compose basic html with their bare hands. Yet Mozilla, Mac and Linux users shall not fear, for we shall reveal forthwith the mysteries of Basic Html:

<strong>This text in-between is bold</strong>

<em>This text is in italics</em>

And

<blockquote>This is a quote</blockquote>

Remember to close your opened tags as such: <tag> tagged text and closing </tag> and we promise you will get out of here alive.

For adding links, either use the link URL button on the toolbar or enter your code by hand in the following format:
<a href="http://www.your_link.com">your link text or description here</a>

Movable Type's anti-spambot e-mail address protection is enabled.

You are a guest on private property. Have fun but please be civil and succinct. Blogroaches will be persecuted, not to mention IP banned.

Long third party quotes or articles will also be deleted... so just link to articles you think are germane to your comment, don't quote the whole bloody thing.