Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Tuesday, announced that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) council has given its nod to impose a 28 per cent tax on online gaming, horse racing and casinos. Several industry experts, while speaking to various outlets, have expressed their concern over the move and some believe that this has to potential of causing huge losses to the online gaming industry. As per a Forbes India report, there were over 400 million online gamers in India and out of these, around 90-100 million are regular gamers.
The GST council decided the same during the 50th GST Council meeting.
"There will be some amendment to the GST law to include online gaming in it. And simply put, online gaming, casinos and horse racing will be taxed. They will be taxed at 28 percent and they will be taxed on their full face value," Sitharaman said in a press conference after the meeting.
When asked if the move will kill the online gaming industry, Sitharaman added, "There was a detailed discussion on this. Our agenda is not to kill an industry. All sorts of businesses have to be kept alive. Casinos in Goa and Sikkim yield a lot of revenue for the two small statesâ€æIt is not so much our position, every state felt it.
