The government is likely to issue an Ordinance to impose GST of 28 per cent on online gaming, casinos and horse racing.

There is very limited time available to amend the central GST and integrated GST rules as the monsoon session of Parliament ends on August 11.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said she expected the levies to take effect from October following amendments to the central legislations and state GST rules.

She said the new levy would be reviewed after six months as Delhi, Goa and Sikkim had expressed some reservations.

The schedule for this week does not include the bill to amend CGST Law. It was not taken up in the cabinet meeting held last week.

However, officials said the government can move a supplementary list of business for a specific legislation, even if it is not discussed in the business advisory committee (BAC) of the House.

However, sources pointed out that the government has very limited time and it does not seem feasible to bring in the legislation in the current monsoon session.

They said three days — August 8 to August 10 — have been allocated for a no-confidence motion debate.

During this period, all other businesses are required to be suspended for the debate.

While the reinstated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to participate in the debate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply to the debate on August 10.

The final day of the Monsoon session — which is Friday — is scheduled for Private Members’ Bills.
There is very limited time for government businesses after question hour and zero hour.

A finance ministry statement said the GST Council in its meeting on August 2 nearly unanimously recommended amendments in Schedule III of the CGST Act, 2017, to provide clarity on the taxation of supplies in casinos, horse racing and online gaming. This amendment will make all three taxable actionable claims.

A specific provision will also be inserted in the IGST Act, 2017 to provide for liability to pay GST on the supply of online money gaming by a supplier located outside India to a person in India and for the single registration in India for the said supplier through a simplified registration scheme.