New Delhi. Using mobile internet may become expensive in India in the future. The government is looking at the option of imposing a new tax on mobile data usage. According to reports, the Department of Telecommunication has been asked to study this matter and tell whether it is possible to impose tax on data usage or not. According to media reports, this issue came up in a recent review meeting of the telecom sector. After this, the Department of Telecommunication was asked to investigate whether tax can be imposed on the use of mobile data or not and if so, what would be its model.
According to reports, the option that the government is considering is to impose a tax of Rs 1 per GB of data. If this happens, then every time a user uses mobile data, this additional charge may be added. It is being told that if per GB tax is implemented then the government can earn up to Rs 22,900 crore every year. However, right now this is just a proposal and no final decision has been taken on it. India is one of those countries in the world where mobile data is very cheap. Due to cheap internet, data consumption has increased very rapidly in India. Mobile data usage is continuously increasing due to video streaming, social media, online gaming and watching reels. Another important thing is that 18 percent GST is still charged on mobile recharge and postpaid bills. That means users are already paying tax on telecom service. If data is taxed separately in future, this could be a new charge in addition to the existing tax.
