RMG industry is currently around USD 2.5 billion in revenues and is growing at over 25 percent CAGR.It is high time that there is clarity on key issues regulating it and the draft guidelines proposed by Meity are a welcome step in this direction. We need clarity from the government on the GST issue. The department intends to charge 28 percent on deposits as opposed to 18 percent on the service fees earned by the gaming platforms, which should be the case. The GST department's argument that deposits are akin to actionable claims does not hold true in my view as gaming platforms only earn the service fees as their revenues and accordingly should be paying taxes on that. Perhaps there is an option to take a cue from the stock market and a reasonable STT rate may be proposed on transactions as this is a special industry and the closest similarity would be the stock market. India has the potential to become the centre of world gaming and these policies should be crystal clear to give this industry a boost. We have the potential of becoming the skill capital of the world. Updating FDI norms on gaming, setting gaming incubators, certification agencies etc. and the absolute need of banning illegal websites operating in India without check is the need of the hour. Illegal websites lure Indians into gambling, take over their money and don’t pay taxes resulting in huge losses for the country.”
Gaurav Gaggar, Promoter of Poker High
The tax on refurbished goods should be removed. Customers already pay taxes when they are purchasing a new product. Once these product is disposed off, the refurbishment centers, fix the products to bring it again in the market. The tax on the refurbished goods seems to be double now as the first owner had already paid for the product manufacturing.
Alok Mathur, Co-Founder, Digi2L
*Disclamier: "The pages slugged ‘Press Release’ are equivalent to advertisements and are not written and produced by Industry Outreach Magazine journalists/Editorial." We do not hold any copyrights towards the content or image. Image source: Newswire
