The UK government was forced to abandon plans to introduce a UK wide broadband tax on telephone lines last night as time began to run out to push through the Digital Economy Bill. While the broadband tax has been put to one side for the moment there is some concern that it will re-emerge if the Labour Government is re-elected at the election. So what are the chances of the broadband tax actually making it onto the statute books?
To all intents and purposes it really depends upon which political party is voted in at the next election as to whether the broadband tax will re-emerge. It is highly likely that the Labour Party would look to reintroduce the broadband tax proposal as soon as possible, if voted back into power, although the Conservative party has already stated it would not look to push through a broadband tax in the event of victory at the next election. So in real terms, the chances of a broadband tax emerging in the future depend fairly and squarely on the outcome of the next election.
The UK government was also forced to put aside a number of other issues with regards to the Digital Economy Bill as well as amending the Internet piracy and Internet copyright proposals.