The government has decided to impose entry tax on goods bought through e-commerce websites to increase revenue.

Additional commissioner, commercial taxes, Arun Kumar Verma told The Telegraph that courier companies would charge customers the entry tax, which in turn would be paid to the state government. A formal notification would be issued by the end of this week.

Officials in the department, however, maintained that not too many products bought through e-commerce websites such as Flipkart or Amazon would come under the entry tax bracket.

"It has been decided that entry tax will be levied on e-commerce businesses and the notification would be issued by this week. The state already has the Bihar Entry Tax-Goods Act 1993 under which an entry tax is imposed on several products, including crude oil and stone chips, but the rule has never been imposed on goods bought through e-commerce sites. However, only few merchandise bought through e-commerce would come under the act's ambit," a senior official said.

The act has a list of products on which entry tax can be imposed. While these products attracted an entry tax in physical shops, the virtual world was free of the implementation. Now, that would come under the Bihar Entry Tax-Goods Act 1993 too.

For instance, air-conditioners, air coolers and air circulators, which can be bought via e-commerce too, attract an entry tax of 5 per cent. Sanitary goods and fittings attract an entry tax of 8 per cent, while 8 per cent entry tax is levied on electrical goods.

"The list of products on which the state has imposed an entry tax is a long one but most don't come under the purview of e-commerce, such as steel and crude oil. Once the notification is out, things will become clearer and people will understand the new system better. When the courier company delivers a product to the customer, he/she would have to pay the entry tax for which a memo would be provided. The courier company will in turn pay the entry tax to the government. All of this is being done to improve revenue," the official added.

The government plans to brief the courier company and publish advertisements in newspapers to relay the information to the people.

Although the commercial taxes department officials feel the entry tax on goods bought via e-commerce would not pinch customers' pockets by a lot, the residents are not convinced. "Telephone sets and all kinds of communication instruments bought online would come under the entry tax bracket. So, cellphones would be costlier when bought through a shopping website. That's bad news," said Rajeev Kumar, an online shopping buff in Patna.