Google, Apple and other foreign firms should be taxed on profits generated from Korean-made contents, ruling Saenuri Party’s Rep. Nam Kyung-pil claimed Tuesday.

Saying that the Broadcasting Communication Development Fund is dwindling due to the drop in terrestrial broadcasters’ advertising revenues, Nam said that Korea should seek out new sources for related revenues citing examples from Europe.

According to Nam, the French government has been developing the plans to levy “culture tax” varying from 1 percent to 4 percent on smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices since May. Nam also said that if introduced, the tax is estimated to generate about 124 billion won ($116 million) additional tax income for the French government.

“Value added tax of 10 percent is levied on local companies’ contents sales, but there is no standard for global companies like Google and Apple,” Nam said.

“The Ministry of Strategy and Finance is reviewing ways to tax (related revenues) but the industry’s view is that it would not be possible.” 

The suggestion, made at Tuesday’s parliamentary audit on the Korea Communications Commission, comes amid strong criticism from the main opposition Democratic Party that the Korean government was trying to rein in internet portal sites.

Also on Tuesday, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning came under fire from DP lawmakers over its guidelines for online search service providers.

The guidelines, drawn up in an effort to increase the transparency and fairness of internet searches, state that service providers differentiate between simple search results and those linked to advertising.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)