Sir, – According to “Internet VAT rate cut being considered for budget would reduce household bills” (News, August 1st), the Government is considering to cut the VAT on internet connections, which could save consumers up to €40 a year. If implemented, it is estimated that the loss of revenue to the Government would be around €60 million per year due to the rate reduction. I suggest that an another way to help consumers get cheaper telecom bills, with little or no cost to the Government, would be to ban the unfair and unpredictable mid-contract price hikes tied to inflation, plus up to an additional 3 per cent on top of the inflation rate increase, being implemented by many of the big telecom companies. The UK telecoms regulator (Ofcom) announced last month that it will ban from next January mobile and broadband providers from using price rises tied to inflation and this move will also afford telecoms customers greater clarity over the price they pay throughout a contract, and allow them to compare deals more easily.
Your consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope has highlighted these unfair telecom contracts on a number of occasions (“Mobile and broadband users face multiple communication price hikes without any chance to switch”, Your Money, February 26th), so maybe now is the time for someone in Government to look at this rather than announcing what appear to be election sweeteners. – Yours, etc,
DAVID GORDON,
Dublin 22.