The all-powerful GST Council at its meeting in Chandigarh this week is likely to make changes in goods and services tax (GST) rates on a handful of items and may go with the officers panel’s recommendations to maintain status quo in rates of over 215 items.

The 47th meeting of the GST Council headed by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising representatives of all states and UTs, is scheduled for June 28-29.

The Council is meeting after a gap of six months.The GST Council is likely to vet a proposal of the panel of state finance ministers on levying 28 per cent GST on on-line gaming, casinos and horse racing, sources said.The Group of Ministers,headed by Meghalaya chiefminister Conrad Sangma,has recommended that onlinegaming should be taxed at full value of the consideration, in-cluding contest entry fee paid by the player on participating in the game.

Fitment panel

Major changes proposed by the officers’ panel or the fitment committee in the tax rates are a uniform 5 per cent GST rate on prostheses (arti-ficial limbs) and orthopaedic implants (trauma, spine, andarthoplasty implants).Besides, or thoses (splints,braces, belts and calipers) too have been proposed in the lowest bracket of 5 per cent. Currently, these goods attract tax rate of either 12 or 5 per cent. The committee has also recommended reduction in GST rate on ropeway travel to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.

Himachal Pradesh placing this request before the GST Council in September last year.