India state plans on collecting taxes

Maharashtra State in India is assessing a budget taking into account millionaire revenues from lotteries.

India.- The Indian State of Maharashtra is adding a gaming tax in order to gather over US$142 million for its annual budget. As authorities reported, the measure seeks to recover the funds through new taxes from currently licensed lotteries of India’s Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram.

Brands under lotteries operations in Indian states are Sugal & Damani Group, Essel (Zee) Group and Martin Group, among others. Under the Maharashtra Tax on Lotteries Act 2006, liability of payment of tax lies with the promoter and companies must start contributing with regular taxes to invest in states’ budgets.

“Promoter is defined as government of any state or Union Territory or any country organising, conducting or promoting a lottery (in Maharashtra) and includes any person appointed as first importer for making lottery tickets in the state of Maharashtra by such government or country,” stated Maharashtra authorities in a letter sent to other states. “Hence, assessment order and demand notice have been sent to the respective states.”

Furthermore, the State of Maharashtra is also evaluating the transference of the licensed paper lottery services to an online platform. This development comes following market studies showing that the online lottery modality generates further revenues for both the company and the state.