MPs on Tuesday called on economic affairs minister Henk Kamp to ensure unused mobile phone minutes can be rolled over for at least six months, news agency ANP reports.

The consumers’ association Consumentenbond estimates mobile phone firms T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN earn €68m a month by clawing back unused minutes from their customers.

The motion, from Liberal democratic party D66, has the support of a large majority of MPs.

Telephone firms encourage customers to buy large bundles of minutes by warning them of the additional costs of phoning too much, D66 parliamentarian Kees Verhoeven told ANP. ‘But everything left over goes into the telecom firms’ pockets,’ he said.