25 Jun 2010

Landline duty scrappage 'is good news'

Plans to end landline duty in the UK are good news for consumers, it has been stated.

Michael Phillips, product director of Broadbandchoices.co.uk, said both business and home phone users are presently charged for a service that many do not even need, want or asked for and therefore the abolition of this form of taxation is a step in the right direction.

He commented: "Why should they have to pay for the roll-out of broadband in the UK when they have just got a phone line because they want to make a call to friends but they don't want to be online?"

According to chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, the proposed landline duty that is in place in the UK is an archaic form of taxation that is no longer relevant to modern society.

He argued that at the moment, the duty impacts on 30 million people who have a fixed telephone line.