DGGI to launch probes into these companies; sources indicate that the total money involved could be over Rs 33,000 crore.
The tax authorities are set to spread their net wider against online gaming companies. According to sources, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence is set to launch investigations against 100 more firms in the coming months to ascertain if there has been any evasion of goods and services tax.
The move comes after the Supreme Court stayed a Karnataka High Court ruling that quashed a Rs 21,000 crore GST demand notice on online gaming company Gameskraft.
“There are over 100 companies registered domestically with online gaming federations. We will start looking into the activities of these companies to check whether there has been any evasion of GST,” said a senior official, adding that only those firms that have a money component involved in gaming activities will be checked.
“Out of these 100 companies not all will be involved in real money online gaming. Only those that have such games will be taken up for investigations,” said the official.
The DGGI is already investigating 35 to 40 online gaming firms for any GST evasion and is set to issue notices in many of these cases. Sources said the total money involved would be over Rs 33,000 crore.