Amendments to the IGST and CGST Acts for online gaming, casinos and horse racing were considered and passed by voice vote without any discussion in both the houses of the Parliament today.

The matter will now move ahead into further approval procedure, and if passed, the amendments will become part of the Acts after notification in the official gazette by the Central Government and are likely to take effect from October 1.

The Bills aim to provide complete clarity regarding taxability of actionable claims on online gaming, casinos and horse racing as the GST Council during its 50th and 51st meetings decided to levy 28% tax rate on the aforementioned activities on full face value.

It will also insert a new provision, section 14A in the IGST Act, to include the registration of online money gaming services provided by a person outside of India to a person living in the country to make them liable to pay tax. In case they do not, the section also includes the option to block them.

Another clause will also be added in section 24 of the CGST Act to make registration mandatory for a person offering online money gaming from outside of country to a person in India.

The Bills were presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the last day of the monsoon session of Parliament. After the 51st GST Council meeting she also announced that the Council will observe the effects of these changes and review them after six months of implementation.

As reported previously, the states may choose to go by the Ordinance route to bring into effect the new GST policy as soon as possible.