Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 6:01 pm IST

Budget 08: Games To Get Slightly More Expensive?

29 Feb, 2008, 4:56 pm IST | Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan |

The Finance Minister has thrown a bit of a googly to Indian gamers in his 2008 Budget Speech.

Sample this:

151. Similarly, I propose to increase the excise duty on packaged software from 8 per cent to 12 per cent to bring it on par with customised software which will attract a service tax of 12 per cent.

Now all games bought off the shelf qualify as "packaged software". However, excise duty is levied only on locally manufactured products (as against customs duty which is levied on imported stuff). Thus locally made titles including most PlayStation 2 games, will be 4% more expensive. Milestone Interactive (which prints and distributes PS2 games in India) chief, Jayant Sharma told Tech2.com that he would like to look at the fine print but admitted that the hike would be passed on to consumers since Excise is typically slapped on the final selling price.

Gaming industry sources also seem divided on the definition of what constitutes 'local manufacture' of a game. For instance EA does the final mastering of many titles locally - will those prices go up? We'll update you as more industry figures study the budget and provide us their official positions

The notes to the speech define packaged software as "packaged software or canned software" means a software developed to meet the needs of variety of users, and which is intended for sale or capable of being sold, off the shelf.

Well, by that definition do DVDs and VCDs also qualify as "software" since they come enabled with menus that can be manipulated by the user? In the final analysis though, even though the hike is marginal, this won't do much good for an industry already swamped by piracy.

Tags: Budget 08

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