Representative image of Kerala government lottery.
Credit: DH Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: The two lakh odd lottery ticket sellers in Kerala are keeping fingers crossed as GST on lottery tickets have increased to 40 per cent from 28 percent with the new GST norms coming into effect on Monday.
In view of concerns that an increase in price of lottery tickets might affect sales, state lotteries department is planning to adjust GST hike in commissions involved in tickets.
While daily lottery tickets are priced at Rs 50, bumper tickets are priced up to Rs 500. The GST hike has come into effect when the most popular Onam bumper ticket sale was at its peak as the draw is scheduled to be on September 27. The ticket carries a prize money of Rs 25 crore and the around 74 lakh tickets were learnt to be sold out till Monday.
The lottery sellers, which include thousands of differently-abled persons and women, already staged a demonstration against the increase in GST.
Kerala finance minister K N Balagopal had already conveyed the state's concern over increasing the GST on lottery tickets to the Centre. The state is also suggesting that the state should be given the powers to fix the tax on lotteries.
Lottery is one of the key revenue sources of Kerala government with a total revenue of around Rs 12,000 crore annually and profit of over Rs 1,000 crore.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation that brings out Milma brands of milk products announced reduction in the price of various products in view of the reduction in GST. The price of around 100 products being sold now will come down by up to 13 per cent.