Online Voice chats may no longer be free in India

Trust the government to spoil the party if you have been using any of the voice chats like gtalk,skype or other messenger services to chat with your friends then be prepared government is planning to tax them which means that voice chats may no longer be free.This is happening basically because of the use of voice chats as replacements for international calling which had ruffled a few service providers forcing them to lobby for this .Archana khatri of Hindustan times reports
Skype, an Internet voice call service owned by online auctioneer eBay, and portals Rediff.com, Google, MSN and Yahoo, which have not been paying any levies for providing chats resembling long-distance telephony, provide their service for free. Once required to pay taxes in India, their services may no longer be available for free.
While reviewing the licence norms for Internet service providers (ISPs), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended to the Department of Telecommunications in May this year that multinational service providers that provide telephony in India through their messenger services should be registered in India and be brought under the ambit of the service tax.Sources in Yahoo India told Hindustan Times that the Indian arm of Yahoo did not provide voice-based services through its servers (network computers) in India, and therefore it did not fall within the ambit of service tax and said it had no plans to get registered in India so far. MSN and Google India could not be reached. A spokeswoman for eBay also said Skype was not registered in India.