TMS Ep477: Urban planning, online gaming, markets, gross gaming revenue

India’s weather forecaster has cautioned people against visiting hill stations. From Himachal Pradesh to Uttarakhand, rains have brought several cities to a standstill, and turned their hills and roads treacherous. The situation is no different in the cities of northern plains. Parts of Delhi are submerged under Yamuna water. But is it nature which is wreaking this havoc? Or are we also responsible? And did Centre’s Amrut scheme - which was launched about eight years ago to improve civic amenities in 500 cities - achieve its goal? 

Meanwhile, it’s raining bad news for the online gaming industry in India. Last week, the GST council announced a decision to levy 28% GST on full face value of online gaming, leaving the sunrise sector in a shock. And now, revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra has said that TCS can be imposed on the payment service providers for online gaming. So is online gaming headed for another shock? 

Experts believe that 28% GST will have an “irreversible impact” on $2.5 billion worth of investments in the gaming industry. Moving on to markets, the June quarter earnings of Indian IT majors were muted in line with the lowered expectations. However, healthy deal wins despite the overall macro weakness lifted the IT shares. So, has the Street already factored in the likely weakness and will the shares extend the recent strength? 

Key benchmark indices and stocks of online gaming firms moved in opposite directions late last week. While markets touched a new high, the shares of most gaming firms crashed after the GST council levied a 28% tax on the face value of online gaming. This move caught the gaming industry off the guard. It had appealed to the Centre to levy the tax on gross gaming revenue, and not on the face value or the total value. But what is gross gaming revenue? Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.