Online gaming, casinos: LS passes amendments to two GST bills to impose a 28% tax
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Taking cognizance of online gaming’s runaway popularity, especially among youths and housewives, and its fallouts such as screen addiction, the Lok Sabha on Friday passed amendments to two Goods and Services (GST) bills to levy a 28 percent tax on gaming.
The ambit of the two bills includes an equal tax on casinos and horse race clubs.
On the last day of the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, were passed in the Lok Sabha.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the two bills seeking to modify the Central and Integrated GST laws and proposed a 28 percent tax on the complete nominal value of wagers in online gaming, casinos, and horse race clubs.
The Delhi Finance Minister had opposed the levy of the tax, she said.
The proposed amendments include introducing clauses into the Schedule III of the CGST Act, 2017, offering explicit guidelines for the taxation of transactions within casinos, horse racing, and online gaming.
Likewise, within the IGST Act, an amendment proposes to establish GST obligations for offshore entities engaged in online money gaming, mandating their registration for GST within India.
Also, the proposed revisions encompass provisions to halt access to offshore online gaming platforms in instances of non-compliance with registration and tax payment requirements.
These amendments to the CGST and IGST laws had recently secured approval from the GST Council, which sanctioned the imposition of a 28 percent GST on the total nominal value of entry-level bets within online gaming, casinos, and horse racing domains.
