BCCI asks Indian Govt. for tax exemptions in legal conflict

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been engaged with a few legal battles in court of late. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has reminded the Board to remember Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that they are more than a month late in presenting a letter ensuring tax exemptions for facilitating the T20 World Cup in 2021 and the 50-over World Cup in 2023.

The BCCI, on its part, reminded the ICC that India are as of now amidst a lockdown and managing the Covid pandemic and that the letter can be issued later on as well.

“It (the letter) is not something earth-shattering, given what’s happening around us. In 2016, the letter for tax exemption was signed a month before the T20 World Cup began. Who signed it? It’s time to understand better what’s happened in the recent past,” 

Sources in the BCCI told The Times of India.

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Adding that the email exchanges between the two parties “haven’t been pretty”, the justification for this tension is likely going to be the upcoming ICC election. Current director Shasank Manohar is reaching the finish of his term and can look for a three-month extension for the seat comprehension of ICC’s part sheets.

Nonetheless, the previous BCCI president had said in December that he wouldn’t look for re-election and doesn’t appear to be willing to extend his stay in cricket’s governing body even briefly. The TOI report further adds that despite the fact that Manohar is quitting, there are the people who worked under him at the ICC (read: staff) who are presently gunning to safeguard their turf.

The only way they can live through this fight is by pressuring  India to comply with their demands.

What exacerbates the situation is that forthcoming government approval, the BCCI has previously complied with the tax exemptions for facilitating the two competitions. One more bone of dispute is that ICC has witheld $23 million of the cash it owes the BCCI from the 2016 T20 World Cup.

“April 18 was the deadline. But BCCI can’t be held to ransom like this. The deadline got over. ICC asked a letter of guarantee from BCCI. Somebody in the Indian board seems have buckled under pressure. And there have been some technical deviations in the drafting of the letter. So, overall, BCCI hasn’t given ICC anything in writing yet,”

as reported to TOI

While the board as of now gotten a lift as the International Cricket Council asked the Pakistan Cricket Board to pay 60% of BCCI’s lawful charges, they have now been asked by the ICC to either pay USD 23 million (Rs 161 crore) by the end of this year as compensation for the tax deductions incurred in facilitating the 2016 World T20 or wind up losing the 2023 World Cup rights.

It is reported that while the BCCI was headed by previous president N Srinivasan, at no point of time had the Chennai-based director guaranteed the ICC to repay them in charge for tax deductions should they be unable to receive a waiver from the government.