|
Court issues notice over taxing internet-based firms
Wednesday June 06, 2012 05:44:01 PM,
IANS
|
|
|
|
|
New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued notice to the central
government, social networking site Facebook India and Google India
on a plea seeking recovery from them of tax arising out of their
internet-based business in the country.
A division bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajiv
Shakdher asked the government and the internet-based companies to
file their replies within four weeks and posted the matter for Sep
5, the next date of hearing.
The court direction came on a public interest litigation filed by
former Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue K.N. Govindacharya.
He asked the court to direct the government to recover all "past
and present" direct and indirect tax demands arising from business
income from Indian operations of different social networking
websites.
The petition sought direction to ensure proper accounting
compliances as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines.
Govindacharya pleaded for a court order to these companies to
implement the verification norms issued by the central government.
He said penalties should be imposed on social networking sites and
other internet-based companies for non-verification of their
users.
The petitioner, presently involved in social service through his
organisation Rashtriya Swabhimaan Aandolan, said: "Facebook gross
revenue for previous year was approximately $37 billion but they
are not paying due taxes on their Indian operations as per
provisions of double taxation avoidance agreement and the
government is not taking any action to safeguard the national
interest and sovereignty of India."
"As per reports, Facebook has further allowed account opening by
children below 13 years of age who may be 1/3rd of their
registered users just to exploit online gaming market and increase
advertisement revenue," the petition said.
"On the basis of unlawful agreements, data of 50 million users is
transferred to the US and used for commercial gains in violation
of the right to privacy," it said.
"...the country is facing biggest security risks of attacks from
anonymous hackers operating through such fake profiles," the
petition said.
The petition also sought banning government officers from using
social networking websites through computers or network in their
offices for protection against threat to sensitive data.
It said that 5-6 percent accounts on social networking sites were
fake or being operated by anonymous users due to
non-authentication of details by the company before the opening of
accounts.
Govindacharya also sought direction to the government to maintain
a national register of sexual offenders and other heinous crimes,
to prevent them from joining social networking websites.
|
|
Home |
Top of the Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
|
Quick links