Abolish service tax on broadband services: DoT

[sTrOnTiaBOnd]

Abolish service tax on broadband services: DoT
"To increase broadband penetration by making it affordable for end-users, the Department of Telecommunications ( DoT) has proposed the Ministry of Finance abolish service tax on pure internet/ broadband services in Budget 2013-14.

The high cost of internet, which attracts 12 per cent service tax, in line with other telecom services, is one of the factors behind the slow growth of the service in India, DoT said in its recommendations for Budget 2013-14. It has set a target for 175 million broadband users by 2015. As of November-end, the number of broadband users in India stood at just 14.88 million, according to data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.


O plz govt remove this evil tax.Even a country like usa has no internet tax.

 

[Sushubh]

so why not remove sales tax on consumables as well? i am sure consumables are more important to the common man than broadband?

 

[sTrOnTiaBOnd]

Broadband is a baby compared to consumables.The only way to increase BB penetration is to remove tax.The power to tax is the power to destroy-John marshall,4th Chief justice of USA.

 

[Sushubh]

you are an idiot. service tax is just 12% of the broadband bill. these ISPs increase price by this much randomly in the name of 'increased operational costs' etc. removing the tax would not magically result in an exponential boom in the internet connectivity around the country. this government needs to fix the mess at NIXI. enforce tighter regulations on the operators so that they are not allowed to charge 10/100 times the cost of bandwidth from the end user. they need to focus on the 88% of the costs which is decided by the ISP not the government.you think it would make me insanely happy if i have to pay 2200 rupees instead of 2400 rupees per month for broadband? 12% on cheaper broadband plans (Rs. 500) is like Rs. 50. you think this Rs. 50 is stopping people from subscribing to a Rs. 450 plan? really?airtel is charging around Rs. 100 per GB on some of their broadband plans. even though they generate profit selling the same bandwidth for Rs. 15 per GB. fix this shit and broadband plans would become cheaper automatically.i pay same money per liter of milk no matter how much i buy it 1 liter or 10 liters. electricity slabs increase in paisa. they do not increase 10 times the more i consume it. so why is this allowed in broadband?

 

[sTrOnTiaBOnd]

My god admin ji be cool.For me even a rs 50 deduction is good.As for isp charges ,CCI and TRAI have reduced the landing cable fees but we have yet to see the light of it.TRAI has even mandated 512k as min BB speeds.The only immediate bill reduction it seems is from removing service tax.

 

[Sushubh]

So what would you do if airtel increases the price of your plan by Rs. 50 tomorrow? What happens then?

 

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[sTrOnTiaBOnd]

Well then thats a fitting case for consume court.If only i was a rich person,I would be filing cases left and right.

 

[Sushubh]

the best you can do is stop them from charging you more for six months. what after that? what if they increase it by Rs. 200? what would you do? sue them for pricing of their plans? on what basis? also, you have still not shown how removing taxes would magically boost internet penetration in the country. with no regulations on tariff pricing by the ISPs... how the hell do you stop them from charging obscene prices on their plans?

 

[kumararvind]

BTW the cost of a GB of data on 3g is 250. I just took one and wondered what is the real price for it to vodafone?

 

[antifup]

I don't think there is any need to abolish it. And my god, that is a low number, only 15 million internet users in India? (considering no one uses dial up anymore, and minimum offered to all is 256kbps... it's the whole number I guess)