Kathmandu, April 1
Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota has defended the controversial information technology bill once again.
He says the new law has been formulated in order to regulate the IT sector so that social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter can come within the ambit of taxation.
He claims that Facebook is earning Rs 12 billion every year from Nepal; hence it should be taxed.
Speaking at a meeting of Development and Technology Committee of Parliament on Monday, the Minister reiterated that the bill would require social media companies to register, not the individual users.
Likewise, he refuted rumours that the government was blocking members of the public from using such sites.
Baskota, however, maintained that the bill would restrict people from publishing contents promoting terrorism, secession and propaganda on social media.
