Society

Geocell makes statement

Geocell makes statement about TV topic aired on Public broadcaster.

“Geocell responds to TV topic aired on Public broadcaster about short number service used for charity purposes and states, that amounts raised from short number service by charity funds solely belongs to the funds and the opinion, that Geocell gains income out of this service is not correct.

Consequently, recently spread information, that company does not consider the recommendation from regulatory regarding short number service fee not to exceed 0.1 GEL, does not correspond to reality. Geocell transfers its whole share to such funds, with the only withhold of state taxes (VAT), which is paid to budget. In the end, Geocell shares 0.85 GEL out of one Lari to charity funds, while the remaining amount is transferred to state budget in accordance with the legislation.

As for the notification from GNCC, it should be noted, that by legislation short number service is translated only as commercial activity between the operator and end user, which means, that this service is not regarded as a charitable activity, even if the final purpose of the user of this service is a charity fund. Therefore, the amounts raised by such activities are not released from state taxation.

As for the service charges from mobile operator’s side, in this case it is Geocell’s goodwill to donate its whole share to charity funds.

For the sake of transparency of this process Geocell introduced special procedure – Declaration on Short Number Charity Donations. According to this declaration the funds, which possess the official charitable status, are given the opportunity by Geocell to go through special Due Diligence procedure. After the successful completion of this procedure a modified agreement will come into force between Geocell and fund, where the fund will be fully donated with the already taxed amount out of one GEL (1 GEL excluding VAT). The mentioned declaration is placed on company’s web page. “