2023 World Cup might slip out of India's hand over BCCI-ICC taxation concerns

It is no brainer that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) contributes a significant amount of wealth to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and both the bodies have shared a great bond with each other. However, ICC will now have to make a decision on hosting the 2023 World Cup in India with the tax related issues not resolved at the earliest.  

Notably, the 2016 T20 World Cup was hosted in India only after global cricket governing body ICC had received an interim tax benefit from Indian tax authorities. ICC held a 10.3% surcharge from India’s revenue share at the time while BCCI is still fighting a legal battle over it. The global body had asked the BCCI to provide required tax solutions for the 2023 World Cup which looks unlikely at the moment given the huge tax amount that was cut down from the profit by ICC previously.

It has been learnt that ICC had already raised a tax bill of 21.84% from the broadcast revenues for the event which is around US$116m (a tax liability of close to Rs 900 crore). While BCCI requested for a tax exemption in 2016, government did not agree to it and it could be the same story this year. According to the News 18 sources, BCCI had already informed ICC that “nothing can be done” on this regard which means that the tournament could be taken elsewhere.  

“It’s BCCI’s money. If the ICC can’t settle this issue before the World Cup arrives, and end up deducting it from India’s revenue share from the ICC, even this will end up in a legal battle,” as per News 18.  

Although the government is yet to rule out the exemptions this time, there has been no indications of any development on the issue. It is expected to be a huge talking point in the cricketing fraternity, if the World Cup is moved out of India given the high population and the fan craze in the country for the game.