Currently billions of people regularly use the internet. Governments the world over are under increased pressure to collect more funds and the obvious answer is to tax internet usage. The first stance towards such a plan was seen in Budapest Hungary in October 2014 and led to mass protests.
How can you tax the internet?
The Hungarian economy minister proposed to charge telecom providers up to € 0.47 per Gigabyte
Effectively consumers will pay indirectly via higher internet prices. Within hours of the announcement, thousands had signed up to a Facebook petition against the proposal. Indisputably with increased data usage a charge or taxation on the internet will inevitably lead to considerable tax collections. Predictions in Budapest Hungary indicate 1.15 billion gigabytes will lead to over €540 million in taxation annually. With an ever increasing need for the internet, perhaps governments will inevitably need to move with the times and tax internet usage in future years to come. Other essential utilities such as water, gas and electricity are all subject to taxation, so perhaps it was only time before the internet would also be subject to similar taxation.
However, governments must inevitably consider the negative economic growth consequences of internet taxation, and some analysts would argue that a charge on the internet would inhibit growth and competitiveness in general.
The post Will The Internet Always Be Free? appeared first on Raj Lakhani Blog.
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