The Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum [Source: Fijian Parliament]

A 10 cents levy will be payable by service providers of telecommunication companies for every one gigabyte of data used by their customers.

Passed this hour in Parliament, a bill to amend the Telecommunication Act will see the introduction of the levy, the proceeds of which will go towards a development trust fund.

The Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum explained that previously a levy from international calls accounted for up to $7 million, however that been drastically reduced with more Fijians using data services to make calls.

“In order for us to be able to continue to invest in the telecommunication sector, in particular for those areas, or those sectors of the population where we have very low population density, we need to be able to have funds for that and indeed many countries have adopted this approach.”

The bill was passed with 27 votes in favour, 22 against and two no votes.