GST will kill racing business: BTC members
The turf club has already given a 14-point letter regarding the issue to GST Council chairman and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Bengaluru: The Goods and Services Tax (GST), the indirect taxation merging most of the existing taxes into a single system, could potentially have a damaging effect on horse racing.
Bangalore Turf Club officials are hard at work to garner support to put forth their side of the story ahead of the GST Council's next meeting on May 18-19. BTC CEO Nirmal Prasad and Arvind Jadhav, two of the Club's representatives, are expected to put forth their case in front of the GST council.
"There has been talk that it could be 18-28 per cent. We are in danger of being swallowed completely," said BTC Committee member Ajit Saldanha.
The turf club has already given a 14-point letter regarding the issue to GST Council chairman and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Though various racing clubs across the country currently pay varied rates of betting tax to their state governments, a common tax of 18% is bound to have a big effect on betting collections and inter-venue royalties.
"We pay 8% to state govt as betting tax, 1.5% as entertainment tax and 12% service tax on commission earned. All put together, it is roughly 11%," Mr Saldanha explained.
"From 11% if it goes to a maximum of 28%, we will have to shut shop. Rs 2,000 crore turnover is from the money received as bets at the totalisator. Our profit for 2014-15 was Rs 1.12 crore, it was Rs 5.34 crore in 2015-16 and this year we have incurred losses of Rs 6 crore because of service tax. We have been paying service tax under protest. We are nowhere covered under Service Tax Act and we are not a service provider. We are administrators. The share we keep to run the sport is a mere 8% and the balance is given on pro-rata basis to the punters," he said.
Waiting for GST Meeting
Bangalore Turf Club officials are hard at work to garner support to put forth their side of the story ahead of the GST Council's next meeting on May 18-19. BTC CEO Nirmal Prasad and former IAS officer Arvind Jadhav, two of the Club's representatives, are expected to put forth their case in front of the GST council.