Foreign entities must have PAN for paying equalisation levy: CBDT

Foreign entities operating e-commerce platforms in India or having access to Indian market will be mandated to have permanent account numbers (PAN) for paying up equalisation levy.

“An e-commerce operator will be a “non-resident who owns, operates or manages digital or electronic facility or platform for online sale of goods or online provision of services or both,” the CBDT said in the notification issued.

Foreign entities such as Amazon (global operations), Netflix, Airbnb, Coursera, LinkedIn and others that offer services in India from outside the country are covered by the levy and will need to comply with the new rules that also include ecommerce operators. Entities established in India under the Companies Act are exempt and so are those with gross receipts below Rs. 2 crore from ecommerce operations. The levy won’t apply to Flipkart as its ecommerce operations are carried out by Indian-registered entity, which is subject to local taxes.