The Lebanese government has agreed to impose a fee on voice communications via WhatsApp and other similar applications as part of an effort to boost revenues in the country's 2020 budget project, Information Minister Jamal Jarrah said today.
Jarrah said the government had agreed to a 20 cents per day fee for communications through VoIP technology used by applications such as Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Facebook and FaceTime communications.
That fee could bring in annual revenues of up to $ 250 million from about 3.5 VoIP users in the country.
A Lebanese television channel quoted Communications Minister Mohamed Choucair as saying the fee "will not be applied for free", which he will announce next week.
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said last month that there were no new taxes or fees in the draft 2020 budget he sent to the government.