Tax sops top crypto, gaming firms’ budget demands; govt urged to mandate local storage of data

A rationalised tax regime tops the list of demands put forth by gaming and cryptocurrency firms ahead of the upcoming budget, industry sources told us.

Also in this letter:
■ Govt urged to mandate local storage of Indians’ data
■ Govt plans stakeholder meet on Digital India Act before public consultation
■ Byju’s to adopt four-tier internal sales programme to combat mis-selling

Tax sops top crypto, gaming firms’ budget demands

The online gaming industry has urged the government to not reduce the current tax deducted at source (TDS) threshold of Rs 10,000, which is reportedly being reviewed by the finance ministry.

The crypto industry meanwhile has asked the government to reduce the 1% TDS on crypto transactions, and review income tax provisions to allow investors to offset any loss incurred during the transfer of the virtual asset against income.

State of online gaming: The government has kickstarted the process of regulating online gaming companies through proposed rules being formulated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Budget demands: Online gaming companies have sought clarity on the taxation structure for games based on skill by recommending that the value of supply for the industry continues to be the gross gaming revenue, which is the fee charged by a company for facilitating the participation of players.

IndiaTech, which represents gaming companies like Dream11 and Zupee, has recommended that taxation-related incentives should be provided to indigenous startups in the sector.

State of crypto sector: In India, nearly two-thirds of the trade volumes on some cryptocurrency exchanges were wiped out during 2022, with companies indicating imposition of various tax rules as the potential cause.

Budget demands: An industry body representing cryptocurrency exchanges and Web3 players – Bharat Web3 Association – has sought a review of income tax provisions to let investors and traders offset any loss incurred during the transfer of virtual digital assets against the taxable income.

Govt, firms may discuss gaming rules today: Meanwhile, senior officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology are likely to meet top executives from gaming companies to discuss the role and structure of the proposed self-regulatory organisation (SRO), the mandatory know-your-customer (KYC) requirement norms for gamers and other proposals, sources told us.

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Govt urged to mandate local storage of Indians’ data

Technology infrastructure companies that are building digital storage facilities or data centres in India are petitioning the government to mandate local storage of user data as well as “reciprocity” in cross-border data flows, industry executives told us.

Driving the news: STT Global Data Centre and Yotta Infrastructure claimed that ancillary industries such as power, real estate and renewable energy, which are reliant on the growth of the data centre industry, will also be adversely impacted by free cross-border data flow.

In their submissions, these companies asked for Indian users’ data to be transferred only to countries that allow their citizens’ data to be sent to India. And, that a copy of data stored overseas be also kept in India.

“Reciprocity of data should be allowed,” Darshan Hiranandani, chairman of Yotta Infrastructure, told us.

Catch up quick: The latest draft of The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 has mooted a concept of “trusted geographies” where the government will prescribe a country or territory onto a “whitelist”, to which personal data may be transferred from India.

Google buys data centre: Meanwhile, Google has entered into an agreement to pick up a data centre spread over 381,000 sq ft in Navi Mumbai through a long-term lease of over 28 years as it expands its cloud infrastructure in India to cater to rising demand in one of its prominent growth markets.

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Govt plans stakeholder meet on Digital India Act before public consultation

The government is looking to soon start multi-city, multi-stakeholder meetings to discuss crucial aspects of the draft Digital India Act before it is released for public consultation, sources told us.

Details: These meetings, scheduled to start from Hyderabad, are likely to see top executives from companies such as Meta Inc, Google, Microsoft and others attending, the sources said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is currently working on the draft, which will replace the Information Technology (IT) Act of 2000.

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Changing times: “The Act has to be forward-looking. It will contain enabling provisions for executive rulemaking as and when time and technology change and move forward,” a senior government official said.

In November last year, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said that significant amount of work has been done on proposed Digital India Act, and the draft legislative framework is expected by early 2023.

Byju’s to adopt four-tier internal sales programme to combat mis-selling

Edtech unicorn Byju’s said on Tuesday that it has implemented a four-tier internal sales process, replacing its existing direct sales programme, after the company came under scrutiny recently for allegedly mis-selling its products to consumers.

Quote unquote: The new model will ensure more accurate customer identification, clearer communication and guard against mis-selling, Byju’s said in a statement.

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“We are constantly striving to improve our customer experience and we believe that this new approach will make the initial stages of the sales process more efficient, clear and empathetic, and will help us establish a strong foundation for a long-term relationship,” said Mrinal Mohit, chief executive of Byju’s India.

Flashback: ET reported late last month that Byju’s would put in place an ‘affordability’ test for parents when their wards sign up for its online courses, to better understand their financial bandwidth.

Earlier, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had summoned the edtech unicorn’s chief executive, Byju Raveendran, following complaints from some parents that its sales team had allegedly coerced them into taking loans to fund courses for their children.

ShareChat fires over 500 employees in fresh round of layoffs

Sharechat CEO Ankush Sachdeva

MohallaTech, the parent firm of vernacular social media platform ShareChat and short-video app Moj, has laid off over 500 employees or about 20% of its staff, according to an internal email sent by CEO Ankush Sachdeva.

This is the second recent round of layoffs at the company, which cut at least 100 jobs in December.

CEO’s email: “We are taking a very difficult decision today to part ways with around 20% of our talented [full-time employees] to ensure the financial health and longevity of our company in the current uncertain macroeconomic environment,” Sachdeva’s email to staff said.

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He added, “In hindsight, we overestimated the market growth in the highs of 2021 and underestimated the duration and intensity of the global liquidity squeeze.”

Severance package: Affected employees will receive 100% of their variable pay until December 2022, the company said. They will also get their notice-period salary plus 15 days of monthly gross salary for each year served as a full-time employee.

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