CHENNAI: Between 2017-18 to 2021-22, the income tax paid by the Board of Control for Cricket in India has almost doubled from Rs 596.63 crore to Rs 1159.20 crore, a written reply by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary to Rajya Sabha query revealed on Tuesday.
In the five-year cycle, the BCCI's income has varied from Rs 2916.67 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 7606.15 crore (the highest in the period) in the 2021-22 financial year. Responding to a query on whether the government is aware of BCCI's income and expenditure in the last five years and the income tax paid by it, the minister revealed that the tax paid by the Indian cricket board has gone by 37 per cent from 2020-21 (Rs 844.92 crore) to 2021-22. In 2018 and 2019, BCCI paid Rs 815.08 crore and Rs 882.29 crore, respectively.
It is no secret that in the last six years, the Indian cricket board has struck multiple record financial deals that helped their income grow. And the data the ministry has provided too coincides with the respective years in which the deals were made. For example, while they only made Rs 2916.67 crore in 2017-18, after landing Rs 16,347.5 crore for IPL media rights in late 2017 with Disney Star for five years, income went up by more than 200 per cent to Rs 7181.61 crore. Shortly after, they also struck a Rs 6,138 crore deal with Star for the home matches.
While the revenue, as per data provided by the ministry, went down to Rs 4972.43 crore in 2019 and Rs 4735.14 in 2020FY, in 2021-22 the BCCI declared that they have made an income of Rs 7606.15 crore. As per the information provided by the ministry, the BCCI has earned Rs 53,652 crore cumulatively in the five-year period while declaring a cumulative expenditure of Rs 15,169.98 crore with Rs 3063 crore spent in 2021-22.
What is clear, however, is that the Indian cricketing body's income and taxes are only expected to go up in the years to come. Since the 2021-22 fiscal year, they have signed IPL media rights deals with Viacom18 for Rs 23,757.5 crore (digital) and Rs 1058 crore (three global regions) and Disney Star for Rs 23,575 crore (television rights). Sold the Women's Premier League teams for Rs 4669 crores, media rights to Viacom18 for Rs 951 crore. And what's more, their revenue share from the International Cricket Council has gone up to 38.5 per cent, bringing in an annual revenue of Rs 1,906.34 crore (approx).