RE: [HDR 1999] -- Net tax? (message from Arun Mehta)

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

From:           	"Arun Mehta" <amehta@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>
Subject:        	RE: [HDR 1999] -- Net tax?
Date sent:      	Wed, 14 Jul 1999 00:25:14 -0400

Has the UNDP thought this through?

1)who do you collect the tax from? 2)what if the cost of collecting 
the tax is higher than the revenue you raise? 3)who will administer 
this money? The UN? Not likely. 4)is there any precedent for such 
global taxation? 5)possibly a stupid question, but why not tax 
something instead which we wish to discourage, such as bullets, land 
mines,... instead of something we strongly wish to encourage?  

Arun Mehta, B-69, Lajpat Nagar-I, New Delhi-110024. Phone 6841172, 
6849103 http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta  

> the 1999 UNDP Human Development Report released today,
> calls for a tax on information sent through the Internet,
> with the proceeds used to help provide expensive equipment in poor
> countries.  With rapid growth of the Internet, a very small tax could
> still raise sums far in excess of the world's rich countires' official
> aid budgets.