Feature
Tax system being overhauled: Jaitley
London: Seeking to soothe the sentiments of foreign investors, disturbed by fresh claims of tax on past transactions by Indian authorities, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said his government was rationalising the country’s tax system to make it fair.
“We are trying to rationalise taxes – that is, lower taxes and introduce a non-adversarial and fair system”” the finance minister told an event co-hosted over the weekend by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and UK-India Business Council.
“We need a lot of investment in India. We need to ease the process of doing business. Therefore, slowly we are introducing changes in that direction,” he said, adding a fair and equitable tax system was a top priority.
The finance minister’s comments came against the backdrop of the tax authorities slapping a $3.2-billion capital gains tax on Cairn India, a part of the Vedanta Group, for a transaction that took place some 10 years ago.
This tax, which was not explicitly in existence at that time, was introduced in 2012 with retrospective effect and has been a cause for much concern among foreign investors. Such retrospective tax is against the present government’s stated policy.
Britain-based Vodafone faces a similar dilemma and so do some 30-odd companies. But the finance minister, while not raising the issue directly during his various addresses, only stated what he has been maintaining in the past.
“We are correcting the aberrations in the taxation structure,” said the finance minister, who is on a two-day visit here on his way back to India from the US.
“Our roadmap is very clear,” he said, referring to the policies being pursued by the Narendra Modi government. He also made specific reference to Modi’s Make in India initiative.
Jaitley also touched upon the latest coal and spectrum auctions that have evoked much interest, beyond the government’s expectations. “The success of these auctions demonstrate how corruption can best be avoided and fetch high values,” he said.
He also made a political statement without directly referring to the the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime’s prime minister Manmohan Singh.
“If he’d had his way, the crisis would never have taken place,” said Jaitley, adding that even though the previous government had announced the coal auctions soon after it took over in 2004, it was unable to do so for the next 10 years.
“How can one allow such a system to continue,” he queried.
Jaitley, who also held a series of meetings, notably with Leader of Opposition Edward Miliband and Indian-origin lawmaker Keith Vaz, and also with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Gideon Oliver Osborne, said India was now on a high growth path.
“We will have a 7.5 percent growth this year. It will be higher next year.”
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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