India's $2-billion online gaming industry jolted by taxing times

The $2 billion online gaming industry in India, while grappling with these issues, the online gaming industry should be treated as entertainment and not gambling, as it comes under the games of skill

Trumped by twin shocks — a Rs 21,000-crore show-cause notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence on Gameskraft, and the Tamil Nadu cabinet’s nod to an ordinance seeking a ban — stakeholders in India’s $2-billion online gaming industry are asking for the sector to be treated as entertainment and not gambling.

“News reports suggest that GST authorities may be clubbing online games of skill, which are constitutionally protected businesses, with betting and gambling, which are games of chance. If that is the case, it would disregard more than 60 years of established legal jurisprudence that has been repeatedly reaffirmed by