MUMBAI: The apex court of India has directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to pay service tax for recording cricket matches, citing the reason that it was a service provider. The decision came in the wake of the Supreme Court dismissing a plea seeking to challenge the levying of the service tax on it.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justice AK Sikri posed the question. "If it (recording of match for live telecast) is not a service tax matter then what it can be," as the BCCI counsel sought to circumvent the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) order upholding the levying of service tax.

The cricket board had moved to court after CESTAT had directed it to pay Rs 18 crore for the period from 2006 to 2010.The CESTAT order was passed on 28 August 2014.

The court further observed that whatever activity was undertaken by the BCCI in the country ‘is a service’. Declining the plea by the domestic cricket body, the court in its concluding statement noted that “recording is also an art as billions and billions of people are watching it". 
The BCCI asserted that it was just the recording of the match and was not a production activity.