Amendment bill to bring betting, gaming in 28 pc GST bracket tabled in assembly

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday tabled an amendment bill in the assembly that seeks to bring online gaming betting casinos horse racing and lottery in the highest GST bracket of 28 per cent reported news agency PTIAjit Pawar also holds the finance portfolioThe bill to amend the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act 2017 will be discussed in the ongoing winter session of the state legislature and once passed by the lower house it will go to the Legislative Council for vote and approval reported PTIThe bill will bring a set of new services under the highest GST bracket and once it becomes a law the state will get a new source of revenue reported PTIA senior official of the finance department said these services put together have a turnover running into thousands of crores and the state will definitely benefit once tax is levied on them reported PTIMeanwhile the Eknath Shindeled Maharashtra government on Thursday tabled supplementary demands of Rs 5552077 crore in the state assembly on the first day of the winter session of the legislature in Nagpur reported PTIThe supplementary demands which are additional funds sought by the government over the budgetary allocation were tabled in the House by Finance Minister Ajit PawarOf the total supplementary demands of Rs 1924434 crore were described as mandatory expenditure while demands of Rs 3279281 crore are required for various ongoing programmes and schemes of the state government a note issued by the finance department said reported PTIBesides that supplementary demands of Rs 348362 crore are towards the states contribution to the ongoing schemes of the Union government it said reported PTIThere are several ongoing schemes which require a portion of financial expenditure from the states coffers a finance department official said reported PTIThe actual impact of these supplementary demands on the state treasury would be Rs 4838466 crore the note said reported PTILeader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress sought to corner the Eknath Shinde government in the assembly on Thursday over crop losses suffered by farmers due to recent unseasonal rains in parts of Maharashtra and demanded a loan waiver while Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis listed steps taken to help cultivatorsSpeaking in the lower house on the first day of the state legislatures winter session in Nagpur Wadettiwar claimed the Shiv SenaBJPNCP Ajit Pawar group government has no time for farmers affected by recent unseasonal rains and water scarcity or drought in some parts of the stateThe state government is spending more on its own events than helping farmers who lost their crops due to unseasonal showers Crop assessment reports are still pending adding to farmers frustration said the Congress MLAWith inputs from PTI