By CNBCTV18.com Feb 2, 2023 6:46:50 PM IST (Updated)
Listen to the Article(6 Minutes)
"(The government has) defined it specifically on net winnings, which is a great clarity. So I think, overall, it's a very positive outcome for Nazara, as well as the gaming industry as well as the consumer, or the player," said Nitish Mittersain, Founder, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Nazara Technologies.
He said so far, different companies applied different rates of TDS, and players were playing in different formats and different structures.
However, he conceded that how the new TDS structure is to applied remains a grey area. But one thing is clear — the TDS is applicable on net winnings. For instance, if one person is playing 10 different games, and in eight s/he makes a loss and in two makes a killing, they the gamer will only have to pay tax on the difference between the losses and gain.
"From my understanding up till now, it's very clear that it will be on the net winnings, which means that let's say you won Rs 10,000 and you lost Rs 8,000 while playing multiple sessions of the game, you would actually pay tax on Rs 2,000," he said, adding that it would have been an issue for the customers had it been on total winnings and not offset against the losses.
"The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is keen on putting out a draft regulation for online gaming. And we're really hopeful after all the stakeholder inputs have been taken, a very balanced and positive regulation will be released in the next few months and implemented," he added.
"I am also hopeful that the long pending clarity on GST will emerge in 2023, hopefully, sooner than later. So I think with these three, check boxes ticked, I think the opportunity for Nazara to really scale this business in real money gaming is very large," he said.
Currency | Price | Change | %Change |
---|