Dear Smt Sitharamanji ,

India is a party to the 2021 OECD-sponsored agreement between 140 countries, to levy minimum global corporate tax of 15% on multinational companies

To best of my knowledge, this has not been implemented by India, so far

If – and when – we try to implement it , legal battles will never end

In the meantime , BIG TECH are having a field-day, compiling private / personal USER DATA ( without their explicit / informed consent ) – then SELLING that data to advertisers to mint BILLIONS of dollars, year after yea

I urge you to consider my several earlier emails , suggesting a simple method of enabling India’s 500 million users of Big Tech, to monetize their personal data , by forcing Big Tech to compensate the users

Eg ; Even if Big Tech companies are required to pay $ 100 ( Rs 8300 ) per year to our 500 million users , that would amount to $ 50 Billion / year

Compare this with figure of $ 66.3 Billion mentioned in the last column of following tabulation

At the bottom of this mail, I list my earlier emails

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

www.hemenparekh.ai / 08 Mar 2024

Source > HINDU Business Line – 03 March 2024

How Much BIG TECH companies Scooped In - $ Billions :

	A	B	C	D
Year	Total Market Cap	Total Revenue	Total Net Profit ( post tax )	15 % of C

2022	7512	1614	286	42.9

2023	11709	1770	363	54.5

2024	13404	1953	445 ( more than total receipts forecast in India’s interim Budget for FY 2025 )	66.3

Estimated Capex - $ Billions

Year	Amazon	Microsoft	Alphabet	Meta	Apple	Tesla	Nvidia	Total

2022	64	24	31	31	11	7	2	170

2023	53	28	32	27	11	9	1	161

2024	59	43	38	35	11	10	2	195

Total	176	95	101	93	33	26	5	526

Highlights :

Ø For example, the capex incurred by the Magnificent Seven companies in FY 24 is nearly 50 percent more than the entire FY 25 capex outlay of the Indian government, as per the interim budget

Ø Citizens , too, may not have much control how their private data is used

Related Readings :

CCI can now impose fines based on cos' global turnover .. ET .. 06 Mar 2024

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New antitrust law may cover Big Tech with 10% India operations … ET … 07 Mar 2024

Extract :

The panel could suggest that if 10 % of a digital entity’s “ Global User / Customer / Subscriber Base “ , or “ Gross Merchandize Value ( business transactions ), or “ Turnover “ in the past 12 months or last financial year is in India, it will be deemed to have substantial business operations here

Ex-ante regulations aim to disallow particular practices from being pursued. Ex-post refers to entities being investigated for wrongdoings AFTER it’s taken place

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What do these figures look like ? Upon consulting Gemini and ChatGPT , I have put together following tabulation ( combining data furnished by both ) :

Big Tech	No of Users in India ( Million )	No of Users worldwide ( Million )	% age ( Indian Users )

Amazon	150-200 (Estimated)	430 +	34.9 % – 46.5 %

Alphabet	500+ million (as of 2020)	5+ billion (as of 2021)	Ø 10 %

Meta ( Facebook )	340+ million (as of 2020)	2.8+ billion (as of 2021)	> 12 %

Apple	?	1.5+ billion (as of 2021)

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As Big Tech scrambles to meet EU rules, investigations seen as likely .. Reuters … 07 March 2024

Extract :

The world's biggest tech companies have overhauled their core platform services to comply with EU rules forcing them to play fairer with rivals but will likely face investigations ahead amid criticism their efforts may have fallen short.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is one of the most comprehensive regulatory actions to rein in so-called " Big Tech " - Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance - and is expected to reshape the global technology industry after decades of unfettered growth.

Criticism from rivals and users and cautionary comments from watchdogs suggest a couple of the six companies may be in the regulatory crosshairs over potential non-compliance in the coming months.

If any of the six tech giants are not compliant with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by the EU's Thursday deadline, they could ultimately face investigations and potentially fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.

The European Commission's reaction to the compliance efforts could take several months as they review the changes and build up a watertight case able to withstand a legal challenge.

Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab is the most affected by the DMA, which forces the iPhone maker to open up its closed ecosystem such as allowing software developers to distribute their apps to users in the European Union outside of its own App Store.

Yet its introduction of new fees such as a "core technology fee" of 50 euro cents per user account each year even if developers opt not to use Apple's App Store or payment system has already caught EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's eye.

Vestager said on Monday that novel fee structures should not undermine the incentives for businesses to switch to rivals, after handing a 1.84 billion euro ( $ 2 billion ) fine to Apple for thwarting Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab from showing other payment options outside its App Store. Apple has said it will appeal the decision and declined to offer further comment.

Minimum 15% global corporate tax has so many loopholes it will only generate half the revenue expected, report warns .. Fortune … 23 Oct 2023

Extract :

An ambitious 2021 agreement by more than 140 countries and territories to weed out tax havens and force multinational corporations to pay a minimum tax has been weakened by loopholes and will raise only a fraction of the revenue that was envisioned, a tax watchdog backed by the European Union has warned.

The landmark agreement, brokered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, set a minimum global corporate tax of 15%. The idea was to stop multinational corporations, among them Apple and Nike, from using accounting and legal maneuvers to shift earnings to low- or no-tax havens.

Much of the hoped-for revenue has been drained away by loopholes, some of them introduced as the OECD has been refining details of the agreement, which has yet to take effect. The watchdog group estimates that a 15% minimum tax could have raised roughly $270 billion in 2023. With the loopholes, it says, that figure drops to about $136 billion.

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My Earlier E-Mails on Monetization of Personal Data :