ZDNet UK News Network
Keep up with all the latest developments in business technology, via news and blogs from ZDNet UK's global network.
Thursday 24 September 2009, 3:29 PM
Digital Britain 50p tax 'to be law' by next election
Stephen Timms, the minister for Digital Britain, has reiterated the government's intention to press ahead with a £6-a-year tax that will pay for the rollout of next-generation broadband in the UK."The levy on telephone lines - 50p a month… will be in the finance bill which I'm also responsible for at the Treasury and my aim is that we should legislate for that this side of the general election," Timms said at a British Computer Society panel debate on Wednesday.
The minister went on to talk about how the government's broadband plans would fare in the face of spending cuts. For more on Timm's remarks about Digital Britain, check out the story on silicon.com.
PreviousComments on this post
I still think this is fundamentally immoral. My Grandmother hasn't got broadband and doesn't want broadband. However, she will have to pay £6.00 a year to support private business. A family with a couple of adults, a couple of kids, who between them spent hours online daily, will pay exactly the same amount. It should be a tax on broadband connections, or on the traffic levels, 10p per gig for example.
Will the situation change? no. The simple reason being the broadband providers made sure they got there way, make it simple to implement so it takes as little effort as possible. Second, make sure they keep the biggest and most profitable users happy, even though they benefit most from broadband.
If broadband benefits the economy as a whole, then everyone benefits, regardless of whether they use the internet or not.
Another labour stealth tax that will never get used for what they state it will.
This country has been virtually brought to its knees by labour, its taxes and incompetence.
They probably look in to taxing people with computers next.
So now, BT who squandered their huge profits over the past years gets a handout from the long-suffering customers in order that they can do what they should have been doing all along - maintaining a viable modern infrastucture.
Oh, and I know exactly how BT blew some of the dosh - I've worked on one of their 'smaller' City projects.
I still don't know why they needed an auditorium opposite St Pauls with multiple broadcast standard feeds, two-person state-of-the-art dedicated sound and video control room, along with 4 oak panelled boardrooms, each with their own full video conferencing AV setup
1. If it is to benefit all, then it should be part of general income tax.
2. However "easy" it is to collect, it is added bureaucracy, expense and paperwork, let alone the quango needed for how to spend it.
3. I personally object. I paid £39.99 a month in the early days of broadband, knowing that I was funding the development for others as well as myself. Now i am being asked to pay again. Disgusting.
4. As a separate tax, it can then be moved up.
5. Having created the principal of an additional stand alone tax, what next?
- how about 50p on electricity bills to fund green technologies?
- how about 50p on every car tax for funding electric vehicle development?
- how about 50p on water bills to fund new flood defences for London?
