Recommendations of 51st GST Council Meeting

The 51st GST Council met under the Chairpersonship of Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman via video conferencing in New Delhi.

Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary also attended the conference, as did Finance Ministers of States and UTs (with legislatures) and top executives from the Ministry of Finance and States/ UTs.

The GST Council discussed the Second Report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Casinos, Race Courses, and Online Gaming at its 50th meeting on July 11, 2023, and recommended that actionable claims supplied in Casinos, Horse Racing, and Online Gaming be taxed at a rate of 28% on full face value, regardless of whether the activities are a game of skill or chance. The Council also suggested that the law be changed to clarify the situation.

As therefore, the GST Council in its 51st meeting recommended multiple modifications to the CGST Act 2017 and IGST Act 2017, including an amendment to Schedule III of the CGST Act, 2017, to offer clarity on the taxation of supplies in casinos, horse racing, and online gaming.

The Council also recommended that a specific provision be added to the IGST Act, 2017 to provide for the liability to pay GST on the supply of online money gaming by a supplier located outside India to a person in India, for the said supplier to have a single registration in India through a simplified registration scheme, and for the public to be denied access to any information generated, transmitted, received, or hosted in any computer resource used for the supply of online money gaming.

The Council also recommended that the supply of online gaming and actionable claims in casinos be valued based on the amount paid or payable to or deposited with the supplier, by or on behalf of the player (excluding the amount entered into games/bets out of previous game/bet winnings), rather than the total value of each bet placed.

The Council recommended that CGST Rules, 2017 may be amended to insert specific provisions for valuation of supply of online gaming and supply of actionable claims in casino accordingly. The Council also recommended issuance of certain notifications/ amendment in notification related to the issue.

The Council also resolved that every effort would be made to finish the process of amending the Act as soon as possible and to have the revisions take effect on October 1, 2023.