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Supreme Court Adheres To GST On Lotteries, Betting And Gambling

A plea was filed by several lottery dealers including Skill Lotto Solution which argued that the Central government had wrongfully classified lottery as goods. The plea by Skill Lotto Solution added that lotteries are pieces of paper and do not hold any value. 

Taking action on the plea, the Supreme court on Thursday upheld that the Goods and Service Tax (GST) shall be imposed on the sale of lotteries, gambling and betting. The bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah dismissed the plea filed by Skill Loto Solutions. 

The petitioners highlighted the discriminatory practice that a 12% GST has been imposed on lotteries sold within the state and 28% GST for sale of tickets from other States. The bench dismissed the plea and upheld the notification issued under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act 2017. According to this, lottery and gambling were brought under GST. The top court issues an 87 page judgement and reserved on 4 November after an extensive hearing by a three judge bench. 

The judgement observed in details, “When Act, 2017 defines the goods to include actionable claims and included only three categories of actionable claims, i.e., lottery, betting and gambling for purposes of levy of GST, it cannot be said that there was no rationale for including these three actionable claims for tax purposes. Regulation including taxation in one or other form on the activities namely lottery, betting and gambling has been in existence since last several decades. When the parliament has included above three for purpose of imposing GST and not taxed other actionable claims, it cannot be said that there is no rationale or reason for taxing above three and leaving others.”

Concluding, there will be taxation on lotteries and gambling and the Central Government has decided on this in a rational manner. Stay tuned to GutshotMagazine.com t0 read more stories about lotteries and gambling. 

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