GST Council meet: Council votes for 1st time; 28% GST rate for lotteries

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chairs GST Council meeting. In the recently held pre-Budget meet, farm experts asked the government to remove GST on agri-inputs, revamp crop insurance scheme, land lease rental while fixing MSP and ban futures trade on agri-commodities. Earlier, the financial sector made a case for promoting leasing by reducing GST, reduction of GST rates on term insurance for increasing its penetration and to provide easier credit to digitally active users by streamlining KYC norms. Stay tuned for live updates.

In a first, GST Council votes; 28% tax on lotteries

In an unprecedented move, GST Council - the highest decision-making body of the new indirect tax regime - on Wednesday witnessed first-ever voting on the issue of levying a tax on lotteries as states expressed divergent opinions.

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The GST Council meet has ended, withno discussion over therate hike in the GST, according to reports.

In a first, the GST Council panel took votes to decide on an issue, since the launch of the new overarching indirect tax.
During the 38th GST Council meeting in New Delhi, the panel discussed the GST levied on lottery tickets, and the votes were in favour of a single GST rate of 28 per cent for lotteries, according to multiple reports.
The Finance Ministry is looking into effective methods to plug revenue leakage, to boost the GST system technologically and examine specific steps to augment revenue, as per multiple reports.
"Investors are keenly watching the on-going GST council meet, a rate hike is looking unlikely due to a surge in inflation while the focus will be more on revenue realisation," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, told Livemint.

"The Central government will have not have appropriate funds to compensate states after February," said theWest Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, according to MoneyControl.

The Council may discuss moves to give boost for the real estate sector, rationalise tax rates on lotteries and making refunds seamless for exporters, according to media reports.

The GST Council is likely to leave tax rates unchanged at its meeting on Wednesday and instead explore maximising the realisation of revenue by checking tax evasion, according to a report by Mint.

Besides, they made a case for promoting leasing by reducing GST, reduction of GST rates on term insurance for increasing its penetration and to provide easier credit to digitally active users by streamlining KYC norms, it said. Demand for GST reduction comes days ahead of the GST Council meeting to be scheduled on December 18.

Financial sector players on Monday had demanded reduction of GST on term insurance for increasing its penetration and streamlining KYC norms to expand financial inclusion. In a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, representatives of financial sector and capital markets also highlighted the need for governance changes in public sector banks (PSBs) with special focus on recommendations of the P J Nayak Committee.

Hello readers and welcome to our live coverage of GST Council meet. Stay tuned for live updates.