Nazara, Winzo, and others write to govt to protest 28% GST on ‘online skill gaming’

Folks at Dream 11, Games24×7, Junglee, etc how's the environment in the office? Have there been any updates from the leadership regarding the direction they'd be taking? As of now, here at Gameskraft it's an elephant in the room with everybody in denial, talking about how we can still survive and no updates from leadership yet.

Seems like since last year the focus of government has shifted from actually making beneficial policies to enable innovation and growth of India to just collecting taxes blindly. They just want to harvest tax in as many ways possible and kill the middle class person. First it was crypto. Then us salaried individuals started receiving notices. Then they levied 28% GST on online gaming. Now they are also checking proofs for HRA allowance and other stupid stuff which wasn't done before. I was wondering why there is a sudden increase in such incidents? Is the government hiding something? Are they running out of money? Or are they just smoking weed just like us and making stupid rules?

Online gaming startups are among those rare breeds which were profitable . With this move, even they will be forced to do layoffs..

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 412% revenue increase from online gaming, totaling ₹6,909 crore in six months. - The 28 percent GST on skill-based and chance-based online games was implemented on October 1, 2023. - Casinos also saw a 30 percent revenue increase. - India, with 442 million gamers, is the second largest market globally, and the industry is expected to grow significantly. - Despite the revenue boost, the industry faces challenges, including higher tax burdens and reduced margins. Source: [Economic Times](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/gst-on-online-gaming-resulted-in-412-more-revenue-in-six-months-netted-6909-crore-says-finance-minister-sitharaman/articleshow/113198707.cms)