From Thailand to Indonesia, taxes tighten for digital businesses

E-commerce has boomed in Asia during pandemic but new levies challenge profits

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Internet giants are the target of efforts to tighten the tax net for digital services. © Reuters

DYLAN LOH, Nikkei staff writer

SINGAPORE -- Governments across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are moving to impose more taxes on digital companies, stirring unease among multinational internet businesses that have boomed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

From Thailand to Indonesia, new levies have kicked in or are being introduced. They threaten to chip away at the earnings of technology companies that are reaping benefits from the rise of digitalization among the region's 650 million people.

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