High Court grills Centre on Facebook

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday questioned as to why Facebook Inc is not paying any service tax, when Google is doing so and directed the Centre to file a “better affidavit” on the issue.“How is Google paying (service tax), but not Facebook? How is Facebook exempted? We are finding it difficult to understand,” a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul said.
 

The bench also asked whether the government was “alive” to the issues of sale of data by social media sites as well as the service of targeted advertisement provided by them. “Why don’t you know all these? Are you alive to these things or is it beyond your comprehension,” it asked after advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for former BJP leader K.N. Govinda-charya, raised these issues before the court.

 

The government, represented by advocate Sanjeev Narula, said that Facebook Inc has no office here while Facebook India has a office in a special economic zone from where it is exporting services and thus, they are exempted from paying service tax.