{"id":36327,"date":"2023-07-12T08:44:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T03:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=36327"},"modified":"2025-04-21T17:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T12:00:19","slug":"gst-council-28-tax-on-online-gaming-casinos-and-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gst-council-28-tax-on-online-gaming-casinos-and-horse-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"50th GST Council Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What Exactly is the Goods and Services Tax (GST)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the GST Council?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary Regarding Decisions Taken at the 50th GST Council Meeting<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its 50th meeting, decided to levy a uniform 28% tax on full face value for online gaming, casinos and horse-racing, while reducing the rate for uncooked\/ unfried snack pellets, cancer medicine and imitation zari thread.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What Exactly is the Goods and Services Tax (GST)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an<strong> indirect tax<\/strong> (not directly paid by customers to the government), that came into effect from <strong>1 July 2017<\/strong> through the implementation of the<strong> 101st Amendment to the Constitution of India<\/strong> by the Indian government.<\/li>\n<li>It has actually <strong>replaced <\/strong>various indirect taxes such as &#8211; service taxes, VAT, excise and others in the country.<\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>levied on the manufacturer or seller <\/strong>of goods and the providers of services.<\/li>\n<li>It is divided into five different tax slabs for collection of tax &#8211; <strong>0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Types of GST: <\/strong>State Goods and Services Tax (SGST), Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST, on exports and imports).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the GST Council?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 279A<\/strong> of the Indian Constitution gives power to<strong> the President of India<\/strong> to constitute a joint forum of the Centre and States called the GST Council, consisting of the &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Union Finance Minister &#8211; <strong>Chairperson<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Union Minister of State, in-charge of Revenue of finance &#8211; <strong>Member<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Minister in-charge of finance or taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State Government &#8211; <strong>Members<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The GST Council is<strong> an apex committee <\/strong>to modify, reconcile or to make recommendations to the Union and the States on GST, like the goods and services that may be subjected or exempted from GST, model GST laws, etc.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Decisions in the GST Council are taken <strong>by a majority <\/strong>of not less than three-fourth of weighted votes cast.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Centre <\/strong>has one-third weightage of the total votes cast and <strong>all the states taken together<\/strong> have two-third of weightage of the total votes cast.<\/li>\n<li>All decisions taken by the GST Council have been arrived at through <strong>consensus.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iQorDnR9iMQ\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iQorDnR9iMQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary Regarding Decisions Taken at the 50th GST Council Meeting:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Levy 28% GST on online gaming, horse racing, casinos on full value:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The GST council agreed that there should be <strong>no distinction between &#8216;game of skill and game of chance.&#8217;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>While the Group of Ministers (GoM) in their previous meeting broadly agreed for the proposed taxes on the said activities,<strong> there was no consensus on online gaming<\/strong> as Goa proposed to impose only 18% tax on platform fees.<\/li>\n<li>According to online gaming companies, 28% GST<strong> will not only hamper online gaming platforms&#8217; capacity to develop new games and technologies but will also undermine their competitiveness in the market.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tax on food and beverages in Cinema Halls:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The council announced that the GST on restaurants inside Cineplex <strong>will attract 5% GST against 18% earlier.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Before the change<\/strong>, movie tickets below Rs 100 were taxed at 12%, while those above the threshold attracted 18% GST.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The entire supply (tickets + eatables) <\/strong>should be treated as composite supply and taxed as per the applicable rate of the principal supply, which in this case is cinema ticket.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Council to exempt GST on cancer drugs:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Further, the meeting also decided to exempt GST on import of cancer drug Dinutuximab, and Food for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP) used in the treatment of rare diseases.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Currently, the drug attracts a 12% integrated GST.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Council on Taxation on MUV:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The GST Council also decided on the definition of utility vehicles and tightening of norms for registration.<\/li>\n<li>A clarity on taxation of Multi Utility Vehicles (MUV) was provided. The Council has agreed to the recommendation to levy a<strong> 22% compensation cess for MUV,<\/strong> but Sedan has not been included in the list.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Council to set up appellate tribunal<\/strong>: The Finance Minister has said that many states during the meeting have requested for benches. She added that no request will be denied.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>\u00a0Q1) What is Direct tax code (DTC)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Through the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), the government aims to simplify the structure of direct tax laws in India into a single legislation. The DTC will replace the Income-tax Act, 1961, and other direct tax legislation like the Wealth Tax Act, 1957.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What was the name of the first committee formed to design GST?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In 1999, the Vajpayee government appointed Asim Dasgupta as the head of the first committee to design a GST model.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/business\/gst-council-impose-28-per-cent-tax-online-gaming-firms-8827305\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>GST Council: 28% tax on online gaming, casinos and horse-racing<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/news\/economy\/policy\/gst-council-meet-28-gst-to-be-levied-on-online-gaming-horse-racing-casinos\/printarticle\/101672546.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>ToI<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GST Council is an apex committee to modify, reconcile or to make recommendations to the Union and the States on GST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}