India May Tax Google, Facebook For Paid Services - Reports

The Indian authorities are exploring the possibility of imposing taxes on Google and Facebook for their paid services, including advertisements sold to local clients, local media reported on Monday, citing a source in the Indian government

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2018) The Indian authorities are exploring the possibility of imposing taxes on Google and Facebook for their paid services, including advertisements sold to local clients, local media reported on Monday, citing a source in the Indian government.

"If any other Indian company would have done the same business � online or offline � they would have ended up paying a lot of taxes, so why let them go," the source said, as quoted by the Economic Times newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the Indian government also seeks to ensure that internet companies host Indian users' data on local servers, as it is concerned about the possibility of a data leak.

About 294 million Indian users have been registered on Facebook as of October. At the same time, its messaging platform, WhatsApp, in February said it had 200 million users in the country, making it the largest user base for both firms.