Govindacharya targets Facebook, Google
7 Jun 2012 12:52 AM GMT
Former BJP ideologue Govindacharya has filed a public-interest litigation in the Delhi high court for recovery of taxes from the Indian arms of Facebook and Google arising out of their Internet-based income from operations in India.
Hearing his petition, the court has sought response from the central government as well as Facebook and Google.
In the PIL, Govindacharya has said, 'The gross revenue of Facebook in the previous year was approximately 37 billion USD, but they are not paying due taxes on their Indian operations as per the provisions of Double Tax Avoidance Agreement and the government is not taking any action to safeguard the national interest and the sovereignty of the country.'
He has asked the court to direct the government to recover all past and present direct and indirect taxes arising from business income from Indian operations of these social networking web sites.
Govindacharya has also sought directions for the government and the two Internet companies to ensure proper accounting compliances as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines and a direction to ensure safety of the data of 50 million Indian users, which were transferred to the USA and being used for commercial gains in violation of the right to privacy.
The PIL has also sought directions to the Central Government to impose penalty on social networking sites and other internet companies for non-verification of users and to recover damages for causing huge loss to the government and the Indian economy due to anonymous users' illegal operations through such sites.
The PIL also said that non-authenticated user accounts on social-networking sites compromose the national security. 'Anonymous hackers have threatened to attack the government web sites from 9 June 'to protest blocking of web sites illegally sharing video contents', the petition said.
He has also demanded that government officials be barred from using social-networking sites from government computers, as it poses risk to national security.
Referring to a report of Mumbai ATS, the PIL said the accused of the 13 July blast in Mumbai last year were in touch with each other and the Indian Mujahideen operatives through Facebook since 2008.
Hearing his petition, the court has sought response from the central government as well as Facebook and Google.
In the PIL, Govindacharya has said, 'The gross revenue of Facebook in the previous year was approximately 37 billion USD, but they are not paying due taxes on their Indian operations as per the provisions of Double Tax Avoidance Agreement and the government is not taking any action to safeguard the national interest and the sovereignty of the country.'
He has asked the court to direct the government to recover all past and present direct and indirect taxes arising from business income from Indian operations of these social networking web sites.
Govindacharya has also sought directions for the government and the two Internet companies to ensure proper accounting compliances as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines and a direction to ensure safety of the data of 50 million Indian users, which were transferred to the USA and being used for commercial gains in violation of the right to privacy.
The PIL has also sought directions to the Central Government to impose penalty on social networking sites and other internet companies for non-verification of users and to recover damages for causing huge loss to the government and the Indian economy due to anonymous users' illegal operations through such sites.
The PIL also said that non-authenticated user accounts on social-networking sites compromose the national security. 'Anonymous hackers have threatened to attack the government web sites from 9 June 'to protest blocking of web sites illegally sharing video contents', the petition said.
He has also demanded that government officials be barred from using social-networking sites from government computers, as it poses risk to national security.
Referring to a report of Mumbai ATS, the PIL said the accused of the 13 July blast in Mumbai last year were in touch with each other and the Indian Mujahideen operatives through Facebook since 2008.
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