MIB has asked the Department of Revenue to either exempt digital subscriptions given by news organisations from GST or cut its rate from 18% to 5%, Hindustan Times report said. The letter written by the Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Sanjay Jaju, pointed out that newspapers do not come under GST because an element of providing “correct and factual information” on issues concerning them is recognized to be available for the Indian citizens to the Revenue Secretary, Sanjay Malhotra.

A covering note pointed out that this could also result in a higher tax burden, which would skew the development of online news toward an advertising model, with a potential negative impact on the quality and credibility of news.

“Considering that internet penetration is increasing in India and the online news industry is still at a developing stage, it is humbly submitted that the anomaly of differential treatment under GST between printed newspapers and digital/online news subscriptions may be removed either by exempting the GST on the latter or by rationalizing it from 18% to 5% at par with that on e-books,” the letter said.

The same had been sought even before the Budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 by digital publishers, before which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented on July 23.