Maharashtra government to charge entertainment tax on IPL matches in state

The Maharashtra government has decided to pull the plug on the free lunch that the IPL event was getting by way of entertainment tax waiver on matches. The government will henceforth levy duty on IPL cricket matches following the Bombay High Court and the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) faulting the government for its largesse.

The state government announced today that IPL tickets from next year would be taxed between 15 and 24 per cent.

The move will cover not IPL matches alone but all cricket encounters as well but the state cannot recover the loss it has incurred due to the tax waiver over the last three yeas including two seasons of the IPL played in India.

Though the state cabinet has given the seal of approval to the tax proposal, analysts say the state exchequer has forfeited a substantial amount of tax revenue due to the tax waiver to IPL encounters and other cricket matches played in Mumbai and Nagpur between 2008 to 2010.

According to the CAG report for the year ended 31 March 2009, the state lost around Rs25 crore on entertainment tax from the inaugural season of IPL in 2008.

The Congress NCP government in Maharashtra had initially decided to levy duty on IPL matches and a cabinet meeting held in March had approved the proposal with chief minister Ashok Chavan weighing in for the proposal.