Melita is to absorb VAT and excise tax on mobile phone top-up cards so pre-paid subscribers get the total face value of the voucher, The Times Business has learnt.

The fledgling operator, which launched in February, will be the first of Malta's mobile companies to make the move.

Until now, pre-paid subscribers lost between €0.27 to €2.70 when topping up by €5 to €50. When VAT on mobile phone services was increased from 15 per cent to 18 per cent, mobile operators originally absorbed the additional three per cent for a while. A three per cent excise tax followed a year later.

This is yet another first by Melita Mobile which is living up to its promise at launch to challenge traditional mobile market practices.

Melita was the first to launch a single call rate, under its original pledge to introduce up to 30 per cent cheaper rates, and removed time windows. It has also introduced cut-price roaming data rates and international call rates from Malta.

After promising in July to announce "substantially cheaper" data roaming rates, Melita is also to slash its mobile internet rates for pre-paid and post-paid customers from €18/MB to €2.99/MB.

Data roaming in Europe with Vodafone costs €3/MB (pre-paid and post-paid). Go charges €8/MB (pre-paid), €5/MB (post-paid) and €2.50/MB (post-paid on some networks).

Melita Mobile is set to announce some new offers on starter packs and launch a business offering for corporate customers. The operator currently has over 25,000 subscribers. Despite some teething troubles, Melita chief executive officer Stephen Wright said earlier this month that customers had helped the company fine-tune the operation nationwide and measures had been taken to optimise the service.