20000121

PCMA resents

abnormal phone

charge for RoK

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The exporters dealing in trade with South Korea have resented the abnormal telephone call charges Ñ over Rs. 90 per minute Ñ from Karachi to Seoul.

M. Iqbal Mangrani, the Chairman of the Pakistan Cloth Merchants Association (PCMA), Sindh Baluchistan Zone, in a letter to the secretary, Ministry of Communications, expressed surprise that the telephone call rate from Pakistan to Japan is Rs. 40 per minute compared with Rs. 90 for South Korea though both the countries are in the same region.

He pointed out that communication was the lifeline for the promotion of international trade. The telephone links between Pakistan and its important trading countries play very important role in this regard. However, PTCL's international telephone rates are on higher side in some cases and one glaring example is of South Korea which is a very important trading partner of Pakistan.

Mangrani requested the communications secretary to look into the matter and reduce the telephone charges from Pakistan and South Korea to a reasonable extent in the larger interest of import and export trade between the two countries.

The PCMA chief, who is also Vice Chairman of Pakistan Korea Economic Cooperation Committee of the FPCCI, offered his services to take up the matter with the Korean government if the Ministry of Communications so desires.