<h1>India Ends Tax Exemptions for Foreign OIDAR Services, Effective December 1, 2016: Level Playing Field for Local Providers.</h1> The Indian government announced the removal of tax exemptions for foreign service providers offering online information and database access or retrieval (OIDAR) services in India, effective December 1, 2016. This move aims to create a level playing field for Indian service providers. Consequently, cross-border business-to-consumer OIDAR services provided by foreign entities to Indian consumers will become taxable. A simplified online registration, payment, and return filing mechanism has been introduced to facilitate compliance. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) issued a detailed circular addressing potential issues related to this change.