View: A Taylor Swift moment is marred by the taxman
Cricket World Cup began in India last week, with economists and stock-market pundits showing more enthusiasm for the contest than spectators. Empty seats during the inaugural match in Ahmedabad — played in a stadium named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi — was a bit of a buzz kill. The hope is that attendance will pick up during the course of the two-month-long tournament.
Away from the field, however, the World Cup is already producing a different kind of excitement, with analysts predicting the equivalent of a “Taylor Swift effect.”
Just as concerts by the American pop idol and fellow superstar musician Beyoncé are estimated by Bloomberg Economics to have added $5.4 billion to the US gross domestic product in the third quarter, economists at Bank of Baroda are expecting the matches to boost output. An additional $2.6 billion spent on everything from ticket sales and TV rights to tourism and food delivery may lift India’s GDP by as much as $1 billion, they say. Macquarie Group Ltd.
has highlighted that room rates at 3-star hotels have doubled.
The stock market has taken notice:
There is, however, a fly in the ointment: A tax bill running into billions of dollars. Betting on the game of glorious uncertainties has traditionally been a preserve of India’s mafia-controlled underground dens.
