GST council to take final call on 28% levy on online gaming, casinos & horse racing today

New Delhi, Aug 2

The GST council will on Wednesday take a final call on levying 28 per cent GST on online gaming, casinos, and horse racing, amid requests from the gaming industry to revoke the decision, claiming that it will hurt the nascent sector's growth.

The meeting of the GST council, which is headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will be held virtually.

On July 11, the GST council decided that there will be a 28 per cent GST levy on full value of gaming, horse racing and casinos.

The decision had led to disappointment in the gaming industry, which had even written to the finance ministry, urging it to revoke the decision.

On Wednesday, the meeting is likely to take a final call on the proposal to levy 28 per cent GST on online gaming, casinos and horse racing.

After last month's meeting, a law committee consisting of Central and state tax officers, had prepared draft rules for consideration by the GST council, on computation of supply value for tax purposes.

The committee has suggested inclusion of a new rule under which the value of supply of online gaming would be the total amount deposited with the online gaming platforms by way of money or virtual digital assets on behalf of the player.

For casinos, the committee has proposed that the supply value would be the amount paid by a player for the purchase of tokens, chips, coins, or tickets.

The gaming industry has requested the government to make a distinction between games of chance like gambling and games of skill.