With greater competition coming to the mobile networks market in 2023, there are hopes that household connectivity bills may get slightly cheaper in the near future. Minister for Digitalisation, Mathieu Michel, wants to take household savings one step further.
In a bid to support the purchasing power of households, he suggests slashing VAT on household internet bills from 21% to 6%, similar to the reduction currently in force for gas and electricity.
In a comment to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the minister states that reductions on internet bills should be inline with other government reductions. “Connectivity is at the heart of our lives today…We must equate a fixed internet connection with gas and electricity. If they are both at 6% VAT, there is no reason why internet connection should not be too.”
The minister states that internet connectivity is now a necessity for most households, providing access to many public services, private households, education, and telecommunications.
Taxation rate on internet service would follow that of gas and electricity. If VAT on gas and electricity were to return to 21% next year, VAT on internet bills would follow suit. “It would be difficult to defend the idea that the internet is taxed less than electricity,” he notes.
The proposal would also only extend to basic internet packages, which cost around €25. This would mean that consumers would be just €270 instead of €300 each year.
According to the minister, basic internet packages are the “most comparable with a fundamental right such as access to gas or electricity.” A 400 megabyte high-speed internet connection, he argues, would go beyond what could be considered a basic right.
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Calculations by the minister state that, in the worst case scenario, the proposal could cost the government up to €140 million.
Alongside the proposal, Michel is also working on a bill aimed at allowing Belgians to surf certain websites for free, without it counting towards their internet consumption. This would allow citizens to access critical public services, such as e-government platforms and tax administration, free of charge.
The European Court of Justice has opposed this principle of “zero-rating” for certain sites, which it says goes against “net neutrality.” Michel, however, believes that the proposal is purely an essential public service.
