Goa state government has seemingly given up on Rs 1,000 crore of potential tax revenue meant to be collected in the form of GST from casinos this year as the latter are likely to contest the notices received.

As a result, the state government believes that the new fiscal year will begin before the tax is actually collected. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the GST collection estimates presently do not account for casino earnings.

It is to be noted that the state government has notified the amendments to the Goods and Services Tax Act today, reported Dainik Gomantak. Therefore, transactions in casinos are now subject to the new GST law.

As per the officials, the GST was earlier calculated on the total turnover of the company. However, recent changes levy it on chips purchased and so the computation has become complicated as the data collected from the companies needs to be re-examined.

Even after that, the companies dispute the tax claims from the government. In such a case generally, a settlement is reached on a reduced amount. This is also being cited as one of the reasons for GST collection to not start anytime soon as this takes up a considerable amount of time. Moreover, there is currently no way to estimate how much revenue will be earned under the new policy.

Goa is a popular hotspot for casino gaming in the country, however, one of the operators Delta Corp has received a Rs 16,000 crore GST notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) recently.

On top of that, the new GST law amendments have increased the tax rate for real money gaming firms which is further expected to lower the tax revenue as the increased tax burden is likely to be shifted on to the users which, in turn, may discourage them to play.