With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council deciding to hike the GST on paper lottery to 40%, Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Wednesday met trade unions representing lottery vendors and agents for their feedback.
The GST hike would affect ticket sales and impact the livelihood of nearly 2 lakh people dependent on lottery sales, according to the State government.
State Lotteries director Mithun Premraj was present at the meeting.
State’s demands
Kerala had strongly opposed the move to hike the tax on lottery tickets to 40% from 28% under the recent GST rejig. The State had urged the GST Council to drop the uniform tax rate for paper lotteries and make it State-specific as sales were confined within individual States. Kerala had also suggested that States be allowed to fix the rates within their jurisdiction and retain the entire revenue.
But these proposals were not accepted at the GST Council meeting held on September 3 and 4.
Ahead of the GST Council meet, the Kerala Lottery Protection Committee led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader M.V. Jayarajan and comprising MPs and trade union leaders from Kerala had submitted a petition to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging her to drop the move to hike the tax on lottery.
