Court rules against BTA

And the BTA's earnings from cellular phone companies are bound to take a dip after Orange successfully appealed against tariffs that the regulator has been levying on operators since 2002, when the cellular phone business began in Botswana.
Orange successfully argued that it was unlawful for the BTA to charge the cellular phone operator tax on money earned from scratch cards and to charge a tax on free airtime the cellular company occasionally awards its customers.

The ruling by the High Court of Appeal now means the BTA will no longer receive tax from the sale of scratch cards and free airtime offered by the mobile operators to their customers. An official at Orange's legal department told Mmegi yesterday that the operator will be claiming back over P 1 million per year that Orange has paid to the BTA in taxes from sales of scratch cards and airtime given as a freebie over the years.