Source Digital Journal

The United Nation’s World Health Organization called for governments around the world to impose a global consumer tax on things like Internet activity and paying bills online.

In order to raise tens of billions of dollars, the UN’s World Health Organization is urging governments around the world to institute a global consumer tax on Internet activity and simple everyday tasks such as conducting online bill payments on your bank’s website, according to Fox News. The sole purpose for these billions of dollars is for development of drugs, research, development and manufacturing capabilities in developing nations.

The idea was put forth by a 25-member panel that is made up of academics, bureaucrats in the health care industry and medical experts who have been discussing new sources of funding for innovation in the medical sector.

However, the indirect consumer tax is only one of the many proposals being discussed for financing the global medical industry. The initiative will be debated in the WHO’s supervisory Executive Board at its biannual meeting in Geneva, which contains 34 members.

The Expert Working Group has also suggested in asking rich, developed countries and cash-rich developing nations to set aside a certain percentage of their Gross Domestic Product to finance worldwide research and development.

If the tax is implemented then it could bring in $7.4 billion per year from rich countries and $12.1 billion from low and middle income nations.
Such taxation ideas include: 10 per cent tax on international arms trade, a digital tax, which would bring in billions of dollars per year from the United States alone, and a financial transaction tax of 0.38 per cent on each bill paid online and major withdrawals.

This is not the first time the UN wanted to tax the Internet, however. According to Wired, the UN Development Program wanted to implement a tax on Internet e-mails, which would charge you one cent for every 100 e-mails sent. The initiative was also aimed at helping developing nations.