The BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla has confirmed that the Indian team’s jersey sponsor will be finalized soon after Dream11, the former sponsors, ended their deal because of the new online gaming act.
The Indian team are currently featuring in the Asia Cup 2025, and after dominating the UAE in the first game, they now set their eyes on arch-rivals Pakistan in Sunday’s clash. However, the Indian team has advanced to the competition without a jersey sponsor.
This followed BCCI’s INR 358-Crore-a-year deal with Dream11; the former sponsors were terminated following the enactment of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill.
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The BCCI vice-president, Rejeev Shukla, has confirmed that the Indian team’s jersey sponsors would be finalised in just over two weeks and are hence expected to be revealed by the 28th of September to the first week of October.
The BCCI has considered several new and fresh tenders, excluding companies that have businesses involved with real-money gaming, betting, cryptocurrency, or alcoholic products from the bidding process.
“The tender process has been released and there are a lot of bidders. We will tell you after it’s finalised. I think it will be finalised in 15-20 days,” Shukla said while speaking at an event in Singapore.
Shukla, when asked about any potential names as the frontrunner for the deal, said, “No, there is no name yet. There are many bidders and we will announce once it is finalised.”
Rajeev Shukla addresses the increased GST on IPL tickets
After speaking on the jersey sponsorship, he next went on to speak about the increase in the Goods and Services Tax on Indian Premier League tickets. The tax has been increased to an insane 40% just like Casinos and race clubs.
This will mark the 500 rupee tickets going as high as 700, and the 2000 rupee tickets being bought for an insane INR 2800. The international matches will, however, mark the 18% GST as usual.
“I am seeing that a lot of common people come to watch IPL. It will definitely have an impact. But I am hopeful that a lot of people will come to watch IPL,” Shukla said.
BCCI vice-president rules out Tax exemptions claims: “BCCI pays income tax like a corporate company”
Several reports had claimed that BCCI, for its smooth administration and control, is regularly exempted from paying a lump sum amount of taxes by the Indian government.
However, the vice-president revealed that the amount of money that BCCI pays as taxes to the Indian government is huge.
“BCCI pays income tax like a corporate company. It pays GST. We don’t have any exemptions.”
“We pay thousands of crores of taxes. State associations also pay taxes. And we never take a single rupee grant from the government,” Shukla said.
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