New Delhi, Sept. 9 -- The department of telecommunications (DoT) is not expected to go ahead with a proposal to tax data usage in the country because of technical implementation challenges and concerns over the likely impact on the growth of data consumption, according to two officials aware of the matter.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had asked DoT in January to study if data usage could be taxed to help generate revenue for the government. The department was also asked to come up with a model that would promote data consumption for positive activities while curbing activities that would likely result in addiction, especially among children.

"This came as an idea and was raised in a meeting with officials from the PMO. We believe i...