BCCI to be asked to cough up Rs 125 crore tax due from 2016 T20 World Cup

The International Cricket Council (ICC) had previously cautioned BCCI that unless the Indian government authorities allowed full tax exemption, their right to host the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in 2021 would be taken away. At the ICC Board meeting, which took place in Dubai, it was decided that they would go ahead with finding an alternate host country.

But, recent reports in Mumbai Mirror has suggested that ICC is further piling pressure on the BCCI to recover taxes of Rs 125 crore due from the 2016 T20 World Cup after they did not get any tax exemption from the Indian government. According to reliable sources, the world body is showing Rs 125 crores as dues from the BCCI board.

The staggering figure is the amount that Star paid to the Indian government as TDS for the 2016 championship, which amounted to a $ 290 million tournament for ICC. However, the broadcaster held back 10 percent of that sum as they had to pay that amount to the government of India as TDS.

Due to that 10 percent deduction as TDS, the ICC members' share came down drastically. The BCCI has insisted that the tax exemption is the host board's i.e ICC’s responsibility, and if it were not to come from the concerned government, then it has to be the liability from that particular board.

The ICC officials were not available for a comment on the issue but the BCCI representatives deny being asked to pay Rs 125 crores. 

"We have not seen the accounts where the dues have been reflected as BCCI's and no one has asked us about it either," said a BCCI representative who was at the ICC meeting in Dubai

BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, who was present at the fourth ODI played in Johannesburg yesterday, claimed that the BCCI has not been contacted for the payment of any such amount as of yet. The 2016 World Twenty20 was assigned to the BCCI when N Srinivasan was the ICC chairman and it was hosted in India when Anurag Thakur was the president of the BCCI.