Grenada (CMC):

The main opposition New National Party (NNP) yesterday expressed strong opposition to plans by the Tillman Thomas government to impose a 20 per cent tax on cellphone calls. The NNP said that the measure would result in higher costs as the telephone companies would pass on the tax to consumers.

"The Opposition believes that because of the Government's inability to manage the economy, it is arbitrarily imposing those taxes without any serious economic basis or consultation," the NNP said in a statement.

Government successfully tabled the increase in the House of Representatives last week. It comes into effect next February and coincides with the reintroduction of the value added tax.

Finance Minister Nazim Burke has said that the tax is a recommendation from persons who contributed to a series of public consultations leading up to the 2010 budget presentation scheduled for January. The government says mobile talk time peaked at 115 million minutes last year, up from 79 million in 2007.

"This country is spending too much time talking on cellphones. Each of these minutes is paid for," said Burke, asking "where does Grenada get all this money?"