International cricket matches as well as the Indian Premier League tournament will now come under the purview of entertainment tax in Uttar Pradesh.The Yogi Adityanath government has taken this decision to correct the anomaly whereby UP has been losing out on this source of revenue while states such as Delhi and Maharashtra have been levying entertainment tax for several years.Kanpur’s Green Park stadium is the sole international cricket venue in the state at the moment, but a 50,000-seat international-level cricket stadium is expected to come up soon in Lucknow. IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla recently said Lucknow could host matches of the professional Twenty20 cricket league in the next season. Kanpur hosted two IPL matches last week.“Due to some confusion earlier, entertainment tax was not being levied on cricket matches. The new government, vide an order on May 2, has decided to levy the same on tickets for all International cricket matches and the IPL matches,” UP’s additional entertainment tax commissioner Awadhesh Kumar Tiwari told ET.“It will be 25% of the ticket amount and the revenue is considerable… The ticket price is of significant value in the IPL match and it is a commercial venture and hence under purview of entertainment tax.” The Yogi government took the decision after detailed deliberations on the issue, according to the May 2 order.Tiwari said the state consulted Delhi government, which said that entertainment tax is levied on all cricket matches in Delhi.A few states such as Chhattisgarh have been waiving entertainment tax on IPL to bring matches to their venues. In 2010, Maharashtra had waived entertainment tax for IPL but soon reintroduced it after a controversy broke out.The UP government’s move to charge entertainment tax on IPL and other international cricket matches, which are money spinners, makes sense. It will boost the state’s revenues. The money can be used to step up facilities for sports other than cricket. But the levy should also be subsumed under the goods and services tax.