We'll defend legal position in gaming cases: CBIC Chief

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chairman Vivek Johri said the government will defend its position in all the cases where the games involved betting and gambling. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has clearly stated the intent of taxation and law for the future, he told ET in an interview.

Both the Centre and the states were on the same page that "any loophole that should not be used by anyone to rig the tax system", he said adding that both the Centre and the states will have frequent data exchange to weed out risky taxpayers.

"The legal intent and position has been that these activities purely involve betting in gambling and therefore are chargeable to tax at 28% on full value," Johri said, underscoring that both Centre and states agree to it.


The Centre is already in the process of filing a petition in the Supreme Court against Gamescraft's decision.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has slapped tax demands of ₹21,000 crore on the company, demanding GST at 28%. Karnataka High Court has quashed the notice saying that it is not under actionable claims.

"In defending that matter our position will continue to be what we are now very clearly reflecting in law," he said.

The fine print of the draft amendment, once approved by states, will be placed by the law committee and then a bill will be moved in parliament to carry out.

Casinos

In the case of casinos, the council has decided that the tax will be applicable to the value of the chips purchased by players and not on how much he spends.

"There has been some discussion around that and the main reason for doing this is that once chips are used for playing games in a casino, it becomes very difficult to monitor administratively, how many times the same chip is used."

To avoid complexity, it was decided that the tax would be applicable to the value of the chips that are purchased by a player, he added.

Fake Registration

Johri added that the two-month drive against fake GST registration has been very successful, and they are considering whether to extend it further.