A ministerial group designated by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Monday examined the taxation of horse racing, casinos, and online gaming and showed the possibility of taking on various duty regimes for these sections.

Meghalaya’s Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, who chairs the group of ministers, told reporters after the meeting in the capital that all three groups are not the same and function in very different ways. The method of collecting the tax is being looked into. The ministerial group will submit its report to the council, which will decide on the duty regime, he said. He also expressed confidence that the report would be finalized in about a week to ten days.

The minister’s representative said that the three industries have various reasons to have a separate duty regime tailor-made for them, in a departure from the previous plan to put all three in the 28% slab.

Industry representatives welcomed this move. The group of ministers recognizing the constitutional and legal differences and nuances of online games is very promising, the All India Gaming Federation said in a statement quoting Chief Executive Officer Roland Landers. The statement said that the industry body is very hopeful that the GOM will arrive at a progressive and constitutionally sound recommendation for rate and valuation for the industry.

With the advent of technology and the use of handheld devices, the online gaming market is fast growing at more than $3 billion with more than 400 million users and is expected to grow rapidly in the next half a decade, said Ankur Gupta, practice leader (indirect tax) at SW India, taxation and consulting firm. It is important to put taxability at par with global tax rates so that the Indian industry remains competitive, said Ankur Gupta.

Credit: Mint