India to tax / levy license fees on ISPs that offer VPNs

Tue Nov 16 23:15:49 UTC 2004

I guess it depends on how you define a VPN over just a private network. 
Is an SSH tunnel a VPN? What about an encrypting SOCKS proxy?

DJ

Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> 
> http://www.india-gii.org/wiki/index.php/Position_Papers/VPN_Tax
> 
>>
>> From Www.india-gii.org
>>
>> http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/923746.cms DoT to dash 
>> hopes of virtual private network ISPs MANOJ GAIROLA
>>
>> TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 11:58:11 PM] NEW DELHI: 
>> Standalone ISPs, including Satyam Infoway, HCL, Global Telesystems and 
>> Estel will be hit by the new policy that imposes an entry fee of Rs 10 
>> crore and an annual revenue share of 8% on gross revenue of ISPs 
>> providing virtual private network (VPN) services. 
> 
> 
> A "crore" is 10 million, so this ridiculous "entry fee" is approx 2.2 
> million dollars at current exchange rates..
> 