The two-day GST council meeting, headed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in Chandigarh concluded on Wednesday. After the meeting, FM Sitharaman announced that the proposal to levy 28 per cent GST on casinos, online gaming, horse racing and lottery has been deferred.
The Group of Ministers, headed by Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, has been asked to re-deliberate the tax rate on horse racing, online gaming, casinos by July 15. The report will be discussed by the GST Council at its next meeting. The GST Council will meet again on this GoM’s agenda in 1st week of August.
Whether horseracing, online gaming or casinos, the common thread as highlighted by the GoM is that they are all essentially gambling, the FM said, adding that following Goa’s request for special treatment for casinos, it was decided that GoM will give one more hearing for online games and horseracing as well
“Looks like India wants to deliberate and think more before deviating too much from the prevalent global tax rate, while still be able to balance the GST rate between game of chance or game of skill. Industry further expects clarity on the term “initial gaming amount”, which is being assumed to be largely covered as the contest entry charges. If left unclarified, such assumption could lead to undue litigations,” said Saket Patawari – Executive Director, Nexdigm, an independent global corporate advisory company.
Addressing the media after the conclusion of the meeting, FM Sitharaman announced a host of decisions taken by the council. “The highlight of the two-day GST Council Meeting is that we could consider, discuss and decide on four GoM reports. The meeting did justice to the good work done by the Group of Ministers on four different matters,” FM Sitharaman said.
The four GoM discussed in 47th GST meet:
– Rate rationalisation committee
– Casino, horse trading and lottery, online gaming
– IT & Tech related matters
– Movement of precious metal
She added the panel gave its nod to most of the recommendations of a group of ministers from states on withdrawing exemptions with a view to rationalise the levy.
GST Compensation
FM said that some states demand extension of GST compensation to states for few more years, however, the Council has taken no decision on extending beyond this month the compensation paid to states for revenue lost from the implementation of GST.
Rate Rationalisation
GST rate rationalisation panel has been given more time. Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said the GoM, which is tasked with the submission of the report on rate rationalisation, has been given three more months.
IT & Tech related matters
The 3rd Group of Ministers, headed by Deputy CM of Maharashtra, submitted the report. They made specific recommendations on what GSTN needs to do to address issues such as fake invoice bills; for example, risk-based models will be developed which will place greater pre-registration checks on riskier entities.
Movement of precious metal
On the basis of recommendation given by the 4th GoM, headed by Kerala Finance Minister, , it will be left to the states to decide whether they will take the number or Aadhaar card, etc. of the vehicles involved in the movement of gold.
Next GST Council Meeting
On the invitation of the Tamil Nadu finance minister, the next GST Council meeting will be held in Madurai, Finance Minister Sitharaman said.
