GST Council votes for first time on single rate for lotteries: Reports

The 38th GST Council has voted for the first time since it was constituted to decide on having a single rate on lotteries, IANS quoted Rajasthan Minister Shanti Dhariwal as saying.

The single rate will come into effect from March 1, 2020, reports said. The 38th meeting of the GST Council chaired by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is currently underway in New Delhi.

At present, lotteries run by state governments attract 12% GST while those authorised by them and sold outside the state are taxed at 28%.

The Council will also take up the matter of revenue augmentation. The Council is unlikely to go for a rate hike or a major rejig at the moment. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has, on multiple occasions, dismissed reports of a possible rate hike owing to slowing collections. Even states are not in favour of a rate hike at the moment.

On the issue of compensation to states, Chhattisgarh commercial taxes minister, TS Singh Deo, has favoured the compensation to be paid on a monthly basis instead of the current bi-monthly mechanism. The government had cleared the pending GST compensation to the tune of RS 35,298 crore just a few days before the Council meeting. A number of states, especially the opposition-ruled ones, had raised the issue of pending GST compensation for the months of August-September. The Centre is yest to clear the compensation for the months of October-November.

The GST Council meeting is taking place in the backdrop of falling collections for the current fiscal. In a reply in Lok Sabha, MoS Finance Anurag Thakur said that the GST collection for the period April-November fell 40 per cent. The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28,365 crore while the budgeted estimate is of Rs 5,26,000 crore for these months.