Nine lobbying groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, have urged India to delay a new digital tax that will hit firms such as Facebook and Google as they are battling the fallout of the coronavirus.

From April 1, India imposed a new 2 per cent tax on foreign billings, or transactions where companies take payment abroad for digital services provided in India.

The tax also applies to foreign e-commerce transactions on sites such as Amazon.

The tax, inserted into budget amendments passed in March, caught the industry off guard as it was not part of the main proposals India’s finance ministry had presented in Parliament a month earlier.