CAIRO: Sudan has the highest sales tax for mobile phone services in North Africa and the Middle East, a new report published by the Arab Advisors Group has said. Sudan has the highest sales tax rate on cellular services in the region followed by Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. The analysis of the cellular rates in the Arab World has revealed that the postpaid average minute rates in Morocco, Palestine, Mauritania, Tunisia, Lebanon and Kuwait are above the average peak minute rate. Sudan recorded the lowest average postpaid minute rates. For prepaid average minute rates, Morocco, Lebanon, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar have rates that are above the average peak minute rate. Egypt and Sudan have the lowest prepaid average minute rates in the region. The Arab Advisors Group analyzed the cellular rates of 48 cellular operators in the following nineteen Arab countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen. In order to allow for comparisons, the report focuses on the average cellular rates of these countries' operators. In calculating the average cellular rates, the Arab Advisors Group relied on the simple average for the packages' rates. The rates analyzed were as of July 2012. The average peak and off-peak minute rates in the report include the tariffs for on-net and off-net traffic.
