India's Delta Corp shares sink on $1.34 bln tax blow

BENGALURU, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian casino operator Delta Corp (DELT.NS) plunged as much as 20% on Monday to their lowest since January 2021, after the company said that it received a notice to pay 111.40 billion rupees ($1.34 billion) in tax arrears.

Delta Corp, which owns casinos as well as poker and rummy websites, added that the company and two of its units received intimations of an additional tax shortfall aggregating to 56.83 billion rupees for the period between July 2017 and March 2022.

The notice deals another blow to the gaming company which is already contending with the federal governments elevated levies.

The stock logged its steepest intraday percentage decline since July 12, when the countrys Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council decided to impose a 28% indirect tax on money collected by gaming companies, which industry experts had said would sap earnings of the $1.5 billion online gaming industry. The stock had lost a fifth of its value then.

The shares pared some of the losses and were last down nearly 18% at 144.05 rupees apiece, pushing them down 32% this year. Meanwhile, peers Nazara Technologies (NAZA.NS) and Onmobile Gaming (ONMO.NS) climbed about 18% and 46%, respectively this year.

While global investors have urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the 28% gaming tax, citing a setback to prospective investments of about $4 billion, the countrys revenue secretary had said there was no need to rethink the tax.

($1 = 82.9700 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil

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