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Indian Government Sets 28% Tax Rate for Online Gambling

Posted on July 20, 2023 | 6:50 am
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The Goods and Services Tax Council of India has announced that it will impose a flat turnover tax for online gambling, casino and horse race betting amounting to 28 percent.

However, the Council has not yet announced when the respective tax rate will begin to be applied. In fact, in order for this tax rate to be enforced, the existing legislation would have to be amended.

According to the Goods and Services Tax Council, the new tax will be applied to the entire value of a bet and not on gross gaming revenue, and that would make it a turnover-based tax. For example, for every 100 Rupees spent by a customer, the online casino operator will have to pay 28 rupees to the state in tax.

In the case of online casinos, the tax will be applied to the total value of all bets received by an operator. For land-based casinos, the tax will have to be applied on the value of the chips that customers purchase at a gaming venue.

The decision comes after a report regarding taxation on gambling from a Group of Ministers was filed ahead of the Goods and Services Tax Council. The respective report, which was elaborated following a study which started in 2022, concluded that the Council should decide whether to apply the tax on turnover or gross gaming revenue.

The Goods and Services Tax Council is composed of representatives from all states and union territories in India and the Union Finance Minister is also a key part. The Council has the power to change tax rates and exemptions.

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Extremely Detrimental

The Indian gambling industry has not reacted well to the news. The All India Gaming Federation, the main industry body for online gambling in India, issued a statement in which it explained that the new tax rate will make life a lot more difficult for operators and ultimately lead to some of them having to close their businesses. According to the All India Gaming Federation, that will most likely lead to more and more players having to turn to unlicensed operators.

“This decision will be extremely detrimental to the entire Indian gaming industry and will lead to lakhs of job losses,” the All India Gaming Federation said. “At this valuation of taxation, companies will be paying more in taxes than they will be generating in revenue.”

The new tax rate is the second major intervention in India’s online gambling market since the start of this year. In January, the government announced a new set of rules and regulations for online gambling and issued proposals for self-regulatory bodies instead of a government regulator.

Source:

, igamingbusiness.com, July 17, 2023.

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