HC asks govt to collect revenue from Facebook, YouTube, Google

Staff Correspondent: The High Court (HC) has ordered the authority concerned to collect revenue from all internet based platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Google, Yahoo and Amazon.

In response to a writ petition, the bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal came up with the order on Thursday.

The court also issued a rule asking the respondents to explain in four weeks why their inaction to realise appropriate tax, VAT and other charges from the revenues earned by different digital platforms from Bangladesh should not be declared illegal.

The respondents are finance secretary; Bangladesh Bank governor; National Board of Revenue chairman; secretaries of law, telecommunication, information and communication technology ministries; Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission chairman; Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh president; Google; Facebook; Yahoo! Inc. and YouTube, LLC.

The court also asked the government to form a special committee to assess the amount of their financial transactions in recent years and to submit an assessment report to this court by June 25.

 

risingbd/Dhaka/April 12, 2018/Mehade/A K Azad