Amendments to the Finance Bill 2020 have been made and approved by the Parliament which includes India to impose an equalization levy of 2% on sales made by foreign e-commerce companies in the country.
From this, those companies will be impacted that do not have a base in India but sell their goods here.
The levy will be imposed on those companies that have a turnover or sales of over Rs.2 crores in the previous year and the companies will have to pay the 2% equalization levy quarterly from April 1.
Sale of local data collected of Indians and of those who use internet protocol addresses located in India would also be taxed at 2%, as per the amendments made.
The definition of an e-commerce company has been kept quite wide and could include entertaining platforms and online gaming, however, the clarity to the term will be provided once details and rules are notified on how this would be enforced and the kind of services would be covered under it.
