The Digital Britain programme of imposing a tax on every phone line in Britain may be much worse than the way it was initially projected by the government. A leaked government reveals the proposed imposition of a much higher tax on consumers.

The document leaked to Conservatives outlines a plan to tax each line in a household. In effect, people with three lines would be paying triple the taxes. To add insult to injury, the government will also charge a Value Added Tax on this levy. The Times has made its opposition to the plan very clear and has called the VAT imposition a case of tax upon a tax. Given that over 1.7 million UK residents have more than one phone line, this levy will affect a huge number of people in the nation.

In addition to the above, the levy will be doubled or tripled depending on whether the user has a separate broadband line or a fax line too in addition to telephone. This means that a user who has all three will be paying a yearly £21.15 to the government in addition to actual usage charges. Broadband users irrespective of whether they are fibre optic connected or standard copper wire connected will be taxed. When the broadband tax idea was first mooted, it was believed that each household and not each line will be taxed extra.

If this scheme goes through, the government will rake in a huge £30 million annual revenue in excess of the present revenues from telecommunications. The Times interviewed a number of ISPs on this issue, who were all of the view that with such huge expenses, the public will soon become disenchanted with broadband and start surrendering their connections. The Carphone Warehouse echoed the same view.

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