The Finance Ministry notified rules to impose a 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the face value of bets placed in online games and casinos, paving the way for implementation of the levy which the government hopes to kick off from October 1. 

New provisions in the Central GST rules specify that for taxation purposes, authorities will consider the value of supply in online gaming and casinos as the total amount paid or payable to the supplier of such games, including payments made by virtual digital assets. 

“With expectations on implementing the new taxation provisions on online gaming in a couple of weeks, legal provisions for such valuation were much awaited by the industry.  Now that the provisions are in place with specific clarifications on some apprehensions, industry would need to quickly gear changes to technology and business structures for complying with these,” said Abhishek Jain, indirect tax head and partner at KPMG.