New Delhi: France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday said that a global tax reform targeting multinationals, including Big Tech, is unlikely to go ahead, due to three countries, including India, blocking the drive, according to Politico. He said that the EU should come up with its own digital tax.

“Let’s face it, today things are blocked, notably by the United States, Saudi Arabia and India. We will plead for an unblocking of the situation on pillar 1 of digital taxation. The chances of success are slim,” Le Maire told reporters during a press briefing in Paris ahead of a meeting of G-20 finance ministers in India on February 24 and 25.

This first “pillar” of a global tax overhaul negotiated at the OECD “aims to distribute corporate tax profits of the world’s 100 biggest companies to countries wherever they sell goods and services”. This was ratified by over 135 countries at the OECD and also by G-20 in 2021 but it needs to be ratified by an international convention and can only then come in force.

The Economic Times writes that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is “a club of mostly rich countries based in Paris, has spearheaded talks on the tax which primarily targets digital giants”.

Each of the three countries would have their own reasons for “blocking” the tax proposals. In the US, it is the Republicans who are opposed to this. In Saudi Arabia, it would be for the ruling royal family to decide.

In India, the Union government, with elaborate IT Rules in place, has a carrot and stick policy for Big Tech, for which it is a big market. Facebook currently has its largest number of users globally in India.

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