Not taxing e-transmissions costs India $500m annually

India’s potential loss of revenue by not taxing electronic transmissions is around $500 million every year, a research paper by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said.

Of the total $8 billion of potential tax losses projected for 58 developing countries, Mexico, Thailand, Nigeria, India, China and Pakistan are the top countries to face the highest losses, the paper revealed.

The study is based on 49 “digitizable products” or those which are traded both in the physical form as well as ‘online’— downloaded from the internet such as music, ebooks and software.

The online trade of digitisable products is termed as electronic transmissions.