As major Australian retailers push for tax for online purchases, Australians are forecast to spend $36.8 billion by 2013 says PayPal Australia.

Currently, the government does not apply tax and import duty for overseas online sales of less than $1000.

"If you are an Australian retailer that does not have an online store today, you are not meeting the demands of the retailer," PayPal spokesman Adrian Christie said in a statement. "In Australia, we are still seeing retailers with small inventories online and bigger inventories in-store."

According eBay, an estimated 80,000 Australians made use of their mobile phones for buying goods on the website in 2010. While online shopping comprised of 3.6 percent of retail sales in the country, it was still reporting robust growth compared to retail stores.

Big retail brands in Australia have launched a publicity campaign calling for overseas online retail tax and saying that burgeoning online sales could lead to job losses in the industry. The campaign has successfully called attention to the issue but has garnered criticism from various groups pointing out the traditional retail sales were floundering not because of tax issues but because they were uncompetitive. Retailers have argued that online overseas shops are not subject to the same taxes that retailers in the country and do not hire local employees.