The Indian cricket board (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) are once again at loggerheads with respect to the issue of granting the ICC events tax exemptions in the country. India is supposed to host the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup and the ICC World Cup 2023. The ICC and BCCI have had a long-standing feud on tax exemptions since the 2016 World T20 in India.
“The ICC and BCCI have been working in partnership to address the issue of tax exemptions for ICC events that is a requirement of the host agreement signed by all parties at the beginning of the cycle in 2015 and this work is ongoing,” the ICC spokesperson told PTI.
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“There are certain timelines within the agreements that we collectively work towards to ensure we can deliver successful world-class events and continue to invest in the sport of cricket. In addition to this the ICC Board agreed on clear timelines for the resolution of the tax issues which we are guided by,” the spokesperson added.
The outgoing ICC chairman Shashank Manohar and chief executive Manu Sawhney have been in contact with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah constantly, however, the BCCI officials were not much happy with the tone of mail sent by the parent body’s legal head Jonathan Hall.
Hall, in the mail, stressed on the point that BCCI had not adhered to timelines on committing to tax exemptions as per the agreement.
“The tax structure is not decided by the BCCI but by the Indian government. It is our government that decides whether the exemption will be possible or not. For the record, Formula One also wasn’t given tax exemption,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.
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The BCCI got tax exemptions for global events prior to the 2016 World T20. ICC seeks exemption on excise duties for importing TV production equipment and ticketing.
However, Star Sports, which also has the BCCI’s home match rights, has a set up in India. This had been the bone of contention during the 2016 Word T20 also and that matter is up for hearing in the ICC tribunal.
“We understand that as the nomination process of new ICC chairman starts on Tuesday, suddenly there has been a flurry of communication. You can be rest assured that T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2023 ODI World Cup is going nowhere,” the BCCI official said.
“As far as the timeline is concerned, we had told ICC that unless lockdown is lifted, we can’t have discussions with government officials. Even an ICC Board member said that discussions should be on to find a plausible solution as the first deadline for tax exemption was December 2019,” the member said.
(PTI inputs)
