Fantasy gaming websites and fantasy players in India got a big jolt from the government of India this week as the government increased the GST from 18 percent to 28 percent. Now the implications or consequences from this are yet to be learned, but it’s believed that this huge increment in GST will affect both the fantasy gaming companies and also their users.
Dream 11 is the largest fantasy gaming company in India. They have become so huge in the past few years that they recently became the lead t-shirt sponsor of Team India. The company founded by Harsh Jain earlier signed a massive deal of INR 358 crore with the BCCI to appear in the middle of Team India’s player jerseys from this month.
So now this news of the Indian government’s Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman levyng 28% GST on fantasy gaming companies, and also on casinos and horse racing betting, has apparently been seen as a big hit to Dream 11.
This news, however, also brought out the meme and jokes creativity of people on social media.
Virender Sehwag makes a hilarious joke on Dream 11 and GST news
Among the fans was also former India batsman Virender Sehwag, who is known for his witty, funny tweets. Virender Sehwag took to Twitter to write a hilarious tweet on this topic; and though he didn’t specifically name Dream 11, it was well understood that he was talking about Dream 11.
“All fantasy companies having 11 in their name should now become xxx 8.593 + gst” Virender Sehwag tweeted.
This tweet from the former India batsman eked out plenty of laughs from the fans who have always appreciated Virender Sehwag’s sense of humor.
All fantasy companies having 11 in their name should now become
xxx 8.593 + gst— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) July 12, 2023
Meanwhile, this decision by the government to levy such high taxes was criticized by many people, including Joy Bhattacharjya, director-general of the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), who cautioned about hundreds of people losing their jobs due to this new GST rule.
“We are disappointed that the GST Council and authorities have chosen to apply 28 percent GST on the total entry amount, including prize money. As pointed out by FIFS and many of its members on numerous occasions, a change in valuation to tax on the total consideration will cause irreversible damage to the industry, loss of revenue to the exchequer, and loss of employment for lakhs of skilled engineers,” he said.
