Indian gaming consortium writes to PMO, I&B Ministry seeking tax relief and clear classification
The consortium has made 10 suggestions to the newly formed government which includes reducing the GST on video games to a 12% bracket to promote sustainability and better cash flow for game companies, exempt import/customs duties, IGST, and any cess for proprietary hardware development kits used for testing and developing video games.
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The Indian Video Games Industry has requested the newly formed Indian government to break the existing categorization of online games into two separate categories — video games and real money games. The representation letter to the Prime Minister’s Office and to the office of the Minister of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) was signed by 70 companies from the Indian video games and esports industry.
“The Indian Video Game Industry (made up of purely entertainment-oriented digital games that do not have an element of monetary staking) will be worth $942 million in 2024. It is projected to reach $1.6 billion by 2029, surpassing the cumulative revenues of all Indian film industries and becoming the largest entertainment industry in India before the end of this decade,” says Harish Chengaiah, founder and CEO of Outlier Games — organiser of this representation.
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He further said, “We urge the government to take a measured and nuanced approach to video games as they have definite potential to spearhead India’s creative economy and soft power aspirations. Despite several requests to be involved in policy discussions, we were never given an audience. We hope at least now we get invited to deliberate on the unique circumstances of video games that are far different from real money games.”
The consortium has made 10 suggestions to the newly formed government which includes reducing the GST on video games to a 12% bracket to promote sustainability and better cash flow for game companies, exempt import/customs duties, IGST, and any cess for proprietary hardware development kits used for testing and developing video games, establishing funds that Indian game conference organizers can access to facilitate fully sponsored Indian delegations and set up India pavilions at major international game conferences, creating standards and benchmarking frameworks for higher education in game development.
Apart from seeking declassification of the Term “Online Games” into distinct categories of “Video Games” and “Real Money Games” for conducive policy making. The consortium has specifically requested the government to not impose regulations pre-maturely on the Video Game Industry and to create AVGC-XR Wing and appoint a Nodal officer from I&B Ministry as the Nodal Agency. It has also requested the I&B Ministry to issue a notification that restricts media from using images of video games in coverage related to Real Money Games.
