India loses US$ 500 mn on e-transmissions annually

The current tax exemptions on e-transmissions are costing India around US$ 500 million every year, according to a research paper by UNCTAD. The paper estimates a total loss of around US$ 8 billion to 58 developing countries due to the tax exemption, of which India, China, Mexico, Thailand, Nigeria and Pakistan are the highest losers. The study was conducted based on 49 digitisable products, traded in both physical form as well as downloaded online. The loss includes US$ 3.5 billion from physical imports and US$ 4.4 billion from electronic transmissions. India ranks 2nd on the top three net importers of physical digitisable products, according to the study.