• Notification Date: 28-08-2023
• Notification No: N/A

'Will re-pivot': Gaming Industry Players remain Upbeat Despite 28% GST Dampener

The online video gaming industry has bright prospects despite the overhang of 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on online gaming, particularly, the real-gaming segment, industry players believe. While speaking at the BT India@100 event on Saturday in New Delhi, they argued and discussed the way forward for the stakeholders of this industry. 

The GST announcement has caused layoffs, uncertainties, and much more. But the way ahead lies in understanding how to repivot, believes Trivikram Thampy, co-founder of online gaming unicorn Games24X7. “It is a very substantial tax increase. The government has done what it thinks is the best for the country,” Thampy said at the event. 

He said, “Companies are working day and night on how to adjust product offerings and the business model. We are hopeful to get past this by re-pivoting.” 

He also said that it is difficult to decipher the impact of this development clearly right now because earlier gaming companies were paying “taxes on revenues” and now they will be “paying taxes on deposits”. 

“As a company, we are still bullish on the long-term prospects. We just need to understand how to make our way…figure things out and repivot.” 

Other panelists including Rajan Navani, CMD of Jetline Group of Companies, and Ankit Mehta, Co-founder, and CEO of ideaForge Technology echoed Thampy’s thoughts and further added that technology will reshape the country in the coming times. Navani said that gaming is a “large industry” and it is here to stay because people are leaning on it to entertain themselves. 

Mehta, who runs a drone-manufacturing company, gave his overview of the rise of this sector. 

“The drone industry has gone from being a good-to-have industry to a must-have one. The need to deploy drones is increasing everyday considering the geo-political scenario,” said Mehta. 

Thampy concluded the session by saying that India needs to rely on the youth of this country which has a never-seen-before kind of hunger. “What is India’s biggest asset right now? It is our youth population. The youth of today are far hungrier. We need to figure out how to satiate that hunger using education and technology.”