The Broadband India Forum on Wednesday proposed a mechanism to enable revenue sharing between the government and private investors such as companies, based on the use of digital infrastructure by the people and other stakeholders. The think-tank group, which also represents big tech companies, said that currently upon creation of digital infrastructure like internet connectivity, setting up phone network, data centres, etc, a spillover effect gets created which in a way increases the tax revenues of the government.
“The Spillover effects of ICT (information and communication technology) infrastructure on taxes obtained by the government could result in increase the rate of return by upto 15% for the investors. This innovative proposal has the potential to revolutionize the investment landscape in India’s digital infrastructure sector and will make it sustainable going forward,” said Professor N Yoshino in an event hosted by Broadband India Forum.
According to Broadband India Forum, the proposal of revenue sharing will attract private players to invest in the creation of digital infrastructure. The revenues earned can also be ploughed back for future growth of the sector.
“As India moves forward with the goal to transform itself to a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy, the need for large investments in all types of digital infrastructure is imperative. Digital Infrastructure needs to increase several fold in next five years to help achieve the goal of trebling GDP to $7.5 trillion over the next 5 years,” said TV Ramachandran, president of Broadband India Forum.
The forum also deliberated the creation of financing models to address investment gaps in digital infrastructure.