PARIS, May 14 — France will go ahead with plans to apply a tax on digital businesses this year whether or not there is an international deal on the issue, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said today.

"Never has a digital tax been more legitimate,” Le Maire said, echoing comments he made earlier that the coronavirus crisis made such levies more pertinent than ever.

Nearly 140 countries are negotiating the first major rewriting of international tax rules in more than a generation, to take better account of the rise of big tech companies that often book profit in low-tax countries.

However, the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak has left finance ministries more focused on saving their economies than overhauling outdated tax rules, making a deadline of the end of the year to wrap up the talks look increasingly unlikely. — Reuters