Google India’s revenues decline 57% in 2018-19, profit increases 16%

Google India’s revenues declined by 57% to Rs 3,992.8 crore in the year to March 2019, compared to the year-ago period. Net profit, however, increased by 16% year-on-year to Rs 472. 8 crore in FY19, according to the company’s filings with the RoC, sourced from business signals platform Tofler.

The firm earns the bulk of its revenue from paid advertising. India currently imposes a 6% so-called equalisation levy on payments for digital advertisement services received by non-resident companies without a permanent establishment here, if these exceed Rs 1 lakh a year. The companies using these services are required to withhold the tax amount.

The basic framework to tax digital companies as released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) could potentially bring companies like Google, Facebook and Netflix, among others, under larger tax liabilities than what they currently pay in jurisdictions like India.