Move aimed at broadening tax base and shoring up revenues; no service tax to be paid for ads in print media
The digital advertising industry wasn’t necessarily expecting a special bounty from the finance minister in this budget, but what they are now grappling with is the inclusion of internet and mobile advertising in the service tax dragnet. Today, while presenting the nation’s budget for 2014, finance minister Arun Jaitley proposed to levy a service tax on online and mobile advertisements in an attempt to broaden the tax base and shore up his tax revenues. This, for an industry which is still a fledgling one, and is merely about 2900 crores, according to IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) estimates.