Message-ID: <000e01bececd$c1cce200$b00380cb@nadeem> Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:24:32 +0500 From: "M. A. Hameed" <mailto:mah@BRAIN.NET.PK> Subject: UNDP proposal on taxing Internet To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
The UNDP suggestion about tax on information via Internet has a parallel right in the US. As required by the Federal Telecommunications Commission, the phone companies pay money into a fund to meet "the universal service obligation." The fund is used for providing telecom services in rural parts of the country. In the context of Internet, all Internet service providers in the top richest countries should pay a small percentage of their total annual revenue to the UNDP. The fund should be used to pay for the international leased circuits of the Internet service providers in the less developed countries. The money will ultimately come back to the rich countries because the international circuits are mostly owned by their own multinational telecom companies. But it will promote tremendously the use of Internet in the less developed countries. The payment should, however, be subject to the condition that the national telecom companies in the relevant developing countries will charge only cost plus rates for the domestic circuits and local connectivity, and not the usually exorbitant monopoly prices. The result of the plan will be the availability of Internet at a very low cost to the users in the developing countries. There will be the one-time cost of a basic personal computer but that will not be much of a problem for most users.Best regards, Muhammad Abd al-Hameed GPO Box 109, Lahore, Pakistan 54000
-----Original Message----- From: Technology Transfer in International Development [mailto:mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU] On Behalf Of Kerry Miller Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 4:11 AM To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Fin. Times: UNDP calls for info-tax for development
********* Copyright 1999 The Financial Times Limited ***************** Financial Times (London) July 12, 1999, Monday
The UNDP wants a tax imposed on information sent through the internet to help developing countries, writes Andrew Balls:
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