Government to finalize GST rates on online gambling in August: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that GST rates on online gambling, horse racing and casinos will be finalized at the 48th meeting of the GST Council to be held in the first week of August in Madurai . Sitharaman was addressing a press conference on the results of the 47th meeting of the GST Council.

The Council directed that the Group of Ministers on Casinos, Racetracks and Online Gambling review the issues in its terms of reference based on further input from States and submit its report by July 15, with Goa having raised the issue and asked to differentiate Casino from online games and horse racing.

“Following Goa’s request for special treatment for casinos, it has been decided that GoM will grant additional hearing for online gambling and horse racing as well; GoM will submit the report by July 15 and the GST Council will therefore meet again on the agenda of this GoM in the 1st week of August,” said the Minister of Finance.

On the issue of cease compensation, the Minister of Finance said that the states were basically saying that compensation could be continued at least for a few years, maybe even for five years. Around 15-16 talked about compensation.

The Minister said that the GoM should be constituted to address the various concerns raised by the States on the GST Appeal Tribunal and changes to the CGST Act. The GoM on IT reforms, among others, recommended that the GSTN put in place the AI/ML based mechanism.

Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said the 3rd GoM has made specific recommendations on what the GSTN should do to address issues such as fake invoices; for example, risk-based models will be developed which will impose greater pre-registration checks on riskier entities.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning utilities will be developed to ensure better compliance than what we have now; GoM will continue to make suggestions and GSTN will continue to implement them,” he concluded. .

The two-day 47th GST Council meeting was held in Chandigarh on Wednesday. The GST on many items was also revised during the meeting.

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