The Central Government abruptly increased the GST on lottery tickets from 28 per cent to 40 per cent. Despite repeated appeals directly to the Finance Minister, through letters, and to the Union Finance Department and the GST Council not to increase the GST on lotteries, the Central Government adopted a position of rejecting all these requests. This led to the tax hike in the lottery sector.
The State Government has always been committed to protecting the lottery sector, which is the livelihood of many ordinary people who depend on lottery sales for employment as they are unable to take up other jobs. As part of this commitment, the government has taken all necessary steps to ensure that tickets continue to be sold at their current prices without any increase in the ticket price, even though this will result in a reduction in the government’s revenue.
Even though the Central Government increased the GST from 28 per cent to 40 per cent, the State Government decided to maintain the ticket price at ₹50. Consequently, the government will incur a revenue loss of ₹3.35 per lottery ticket. For a single lottery draw, this loss amounts to ₹3.35 crore. The price hike was avoided by reducing the government’s operating surplus, discount, agency prize, and prize money.
Currently, 60 per cent of the total sales revenue is given out as prizes. However, due to the reduction in sales revenue, there has been a slight decrease in the total prize money. The government is currently examining how to restructure the agent discount and agency prize. The Chief Minister stated that the government is taking all necessary steps to ensure that the GST rate revision implemented by the Central Government does not affect the workers and their families in the state’s lottery sector in any way.
(Input from Kerala News.gov.)
For more details: Navamalayalam.com
