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The SC upheld the notification issued under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 wherein the lottery and gambling have been brought under the GST.

Highlights

• The order was passed in a batch of pleas filed by various lottery dealers including Skill Lotto Solution, a lottery dealer, which argued that Central government had wrongfully classified lottery as “goods"
  
• The plea added that the lottery are pieces of paper and devoid of any value.
• The petitioners highlighted the alleged discriminatory practice wherein there is an imposition of 12% GST on lotteries sold within the same State and 28% GST for sale of tickets from other States.
• The net amount totals to 31.2%, including cess.
  
• Irrespective of how much one wins, you must pay a 30% tax on it. 

Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017

• It is extend to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.

Lottery – a game with established rules where players buy tickets for a chance to win cash or other merchandise prizes.

Gambling – a game or mutual bet according to established rules whose participants, seeking monetary gain, voluntarily risk losing an amount they have paid in, and where winning or losing is determined by chance, by some event, or by the result of a sport competition.

Source: The Hindu