The GST Council on August 2 blinked a little on technicalities and kept the door open for a review down the road, but stuck to its earlier decision to impose a 28% levy on the full face value of bets placed on online gaming, casinos and horse racing, with an eye on implementing it from October 1.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who chaired the Council’s meeting, said the Centre would now strive to amend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law in Parliament’s current session itself to enable the implementation of the levy, despite dissent from Sikkim and Goa over the modalities of the tax for casino users.
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu raised concerns about the levy’s impact on the State-wide ban on online gaming, which Ms. Sitharaman said would be addressed in the language of the new norms to explicitly state the tax cannot be levied where a ban is in place.
