The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is considered to be perhaps the richest cricket board in the world and it is evident from the fact that as per the Ministry of Finance of the Indian government, the board has paid INR 4298 crores as income tax in last 5 years.
Contrary to popular belief, the BCCI, despite being widely perceived to have tax exemption, has consistently fulfilled its income tax obligations.
Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary revealed in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, August 8, that the BCCI has paid Rs 4,298.12 crore towards income tax. The breakdown of these tax payments is as follows: Rs 844.92 crore in 2020-21, Rs 882.29 crore in 2019-20, Rs 815.08 crore in 2018-19, Rs 596.63 crore in 2017-18, and an additional Rs 1,159.20 crore in the most recent financial year.
The disclosure came in response to a query posed by member Anil Desai. The member's questions were as follows:
"(a) Whether the Government is aware that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) ranks as the second richest sports body globally, and if so, could the income and expenditure of the BCCI over the past five years be provided?
(b) Whether the BCCI has made any income tax payments during the last five years, and if so, could the specifics be elucidated?
(c) If not, could the reasons behind this be explained?"
The Minister replied that the government doesn’t maintain data about sports bodies on a global scale.
However, he also revealed that the BCCI has had a surplus of Rs 4542 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal year itself, to go with that of nearly INR 1650 Cr and INR 2700 Crore in 2020-21 and 2019-2020 respectively.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
