GST on online gaming, horse racing, fantasy games: GST Council may take final call soon

Panaji: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's group of ministers (GoM) on online gambling, race courses and casinos will look to recommend best global practices while assessing taxability on services like online gaming, horse racing and fantasy games, Goa's Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho said.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the GoM in the national capital on May 2, Godinho, the state's representative to the Council, also said that after the recommendations made by the GoM, the GST council would take a final call on the taxation policy for the three services.

"It is a GOM meeting called to discuss about casinos, about horse racing about online gaming, about fantasy games... as to how much of taxation should be there. What all practices are to be adopted. When I say practices, their (industry) demand is that they should be taxed on on gross gaming revenue and not on the transactions taking place or the number of times they (consumers) play on different games.

"We are going to adopt best practices which are there in the rest of the world, where (the) casino industry is there, where horse racing, etc etc things are there. Basically as a GOM we have to do our homework and see that the best practices as far as this particular industry is concerned are adopted and then it will go to a fuller council of the GST where they will take a decision in totality," he added.

The Council had formed a GoM last year in order to examine the need for alterations to the legal provisions in order to "adopt better means of valuation of these services".