MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC), on the basis of projected income, hopes to get a tax exemption of around $100 million for the ICC Champions Trophy in 2021 and the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2023 from the Indian government.
It is the prerogative of the BCCI to get the waiver from the government.
A top source told The Hindu: “The BCCI is a party to tax exemption decisions and hence is bound by it. The BCCI did not get the exemption for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup held in India. The BCCI and ICC officials have shown documents from countries that gave tax exemption for ICC events to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The ICC members believe that they should not lose money.”
A press release said on Friday that the ICC would look at countries with the same time-zone as India as a host in the event of the BCCI not being able to obtain the tax waiver from the government. It could be either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh in that case.
In a related development, Mumbai Mirror reports that if the Union government refuses to play ball on providing tax exemptions, the ICC will be looking to recover the tax component it paid for the Twenty20 World Cup from the BCCI.
According to Mirror, the ICC has computed the tax dues to be Rs 1.25 billion. The figure is the amount Star India has paid to the Indian government towards TDS for the 2016 championship which was a $ 290 million tournament for the ICC.
As a result of that 10 per cent deduction, the ICC members’ share has come down proportionately. The argument that is now being made is that the tax exemption is the host board’s responsibility and if it were not to come from the concerned government, it has to be the liability from that particular board.
Clearly the last word on this matter is still to be heard.
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