Sikkim High Court stays Rs 628 cr GST demand against Delta Corp

The government has raised a total GST demand of around Rs 23,000 crore against the company till date which includes recovery of the shortfall of taxes for casino and online gaming business of the Delta Corp group.

New Delhi: The Sikkim High Court has granted a stay on about Rs 628 crore GST demand order against Delta Corp, the casino and online gaming company said in a regulatory filing on Sunday.

The government has raised a total GST demand of around Rs 23,000 crore against the company till date which includes recovery of the shortfall of taxes for casino and online gaming business of the Delta Corp group. The Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Hyderabad on September 22 issued three demand notices against the company including a demand of over Rs 628 crore for the shortfall of tax paid by Delta Corp Limited in relation to Casino Deltin Denzong based out of Sikkim.

"Pursuant to a writ petition filed by the Company before the Hon'ble High Court of Sikkim challenging the above demand, the Hon'ble High Court has by its order dated 20th October 2023 ordered status quo to be maintained in respect of the demand until the date of next hearing," Delta Corp said in the filing. Besides casinos, Delta Corp through its online gaming subsidiary Deltatech Gaming runs online real money games like poker, rummy, cricket etc.

In its financial performance note on October 11, Deta Corp mentioned that the company and its two subsidiary companies have received show cause notices for alleged short payment of Goods and Service Tax (GST) aggregating Rs 16,822.98 crores for the period from July 1, 2017, to March 31, 2022.

The company on October 14 updated stock exchanges that its subsidiary Deltatech Gaming Limited has received intimation from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Kolkata for payment of Rs 6,236.81 crore for the shortfall in taxes for the period between January 2018 and November 2022 and Rs 147.51 crore for period between July 2017 to October 2022.

The recent notice takes the total GST demand against the company to over Rs 23,200 crore. Delta Corp during the second quarter ended September 30, 2023, has posted a 1.7 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to about Rs 7 crore and about 3.4 per cent increase in income from operations at Rs 283 crore.