India: Panel Tasked with Submitting a Report on iGaming Taxation Proposal Yet to Submit its Findings

A panel of Indian state finance ministers tasked with submitting a report on proposed taxation of the booming iGaming sector has yet to submit its findings.

The report is crucial to a final decision on how the levies should be imposed, a senior government official said.

However, the panel is unlikely to reach a consensus this month, the official added.

The panel has for weeks been deliberating how it should tax online gaming companies, and whether federal tax should be imposed on only the profits of firms or on the value of the entire pool of money collected from participants.

The move to set a new taxation regime for online gaming comes as the sector keeps gaining momentum in India. The increasing popularity of real-money iGaming has prompted foreign investors including Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital to back local gaming startups such as Dream11 and Mobile Premier League, popular for their fantasy cricket games.