The Supreme Court of India has dismissed a plea filed by Skill Loto Solutions which sought to declare the levy of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on lottery as discriminatory and in violation of the provisions of the constitution of India.
On December 3, the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, upheld the notification issued under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act 2017 in which lottery and gambling have been brought under the GST, according to Yogonet.
The bench dismissed the plea filed by Skill Loto, which sought to declare the levy of GST on lottery as discriminatory and in violation to the provisions of the constitution of the country.
The order was passed in a batch of pleas filed by several lottery dealers, including Skill Lotto, who argued that lottery had wrongfully been classified as ‘goods’ by the government, adding that lottery is pieces of paper and devoid of any value.
The 87-page judgement of the top court was reserved on November 4 after a three-judge bench conducted an extensive hearing.
The petitioners highlighted the alleged discriminatory practice in which there is an imposition of 12% GST on lotteries sold within the same state and 28% GST for the sale of tickets from other states.
The judgement declared: “When Act 2017 defines the goods to include actionable claims and included only three categories of actionable claims, ie lottery, betting and gambling for purposes of levy of GST, it cannot be said that there was no rationale for including these three actionable claims for tax purposes.
“Regulation including taxation in one or other form on the activities namely lottery, betting and gambling has been in existence since the last several decades.
“When the parliament has included above three for purpose of imposing GST and not taxed other actionable claims, it cannot be said that there is no rationale or reason for taxing above three and leaving others,” the judgement concluded.
