Indian Cricket Board paid INR 4298 Cr Income Tax in last five years

The Indian Cricket Board has paid a considerable Rs 4,298 crore in Income Tax over the last five years. Opposing the accepted belief, the Indian Cricket  Board, despite being widely discerned to have tax exemption, has constantly fulfilled its income tax commitments. This was disclosed by Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, during a statement he made in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, August 8. 

In the past five years alone, the Indian Cricket Board has put up a total of Rs 4,298.12 crore towards income tax. The tax payments breakdown is as follows: Rs 844.92 crore in 2020-21, Rs 882.29 crore in 2019-20, Rs 815.08 crore in 2018-19, Rs 596.63 crore in 2017-18, and another Rs 1,159.20 crore in the last financial year. 

The divulgence came as response to a query raised by member Anil Desai. Following were  the questions posed:-

(a) Whether the Government is aware that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) ranks as the second richest sports body globally, and if so, could the income and expenditure of the BCCI over the past five years be provided?

(b) Whether the BCCI has made any income tax payments during the last five years, and if so, could the specifics be elucidated?

(c) If not, could the reasons behind this be explained?

In response, the Minister stated that the Government does not maintain data concerning sports bodies on a global level. Nonetheless, he presented the Income and Expenditure details as per the income tax returns filed over the last five years, which showed that the Indian Cricket Board has had an additional Rs 4542 crore in 2021-22 financial year itself, to go with that of approximately INR 1650 Cr and INR 2700 Crore in 2020-21 and 2019-2020 respectively. The Indian Cricket Board has paid taxed as mentioned above for the same.