Kerala lottery turnover to fall short, Meghalaya restarts

Saturday 25th of November 2017

Total profit of Kerala’s lottery department is expected to decrease 6 to 8 percent this fiscal year, due to the implementation of new GST rules and a revision of the lottery ticket price structure earlier this year.

Both the GST and price revision came into effect in July, with the price structure upped from 40-44 percent of the sales turnover to 50-51 percent. The Lotteries Department is now also required to pay R50 lakh (US$77,458) as tax for each draw, as well as 12 percent of each ticket sold in tax.

According to the India Express, the department rolls out seven weekly lotteries, all priced at Rs 30 per ticket. Bumper lotteries at higher prices are sold for X’Mas-New Year, Summer, Vishu, Monsoon, Thiruvonam and Navaratri (Pooja bumper).

Before July, the department’s profit was about 23 percent of total sales turnover, after the new changes came in, this has come down to 15-16 percent, said the report.

The increase in ticket price however, hasn’t affected the number of tickets sold, which has increased in the period.

Last month, the Kerala government said it expected to generate R10,000 crores in lottery revenue for the 2017-2018 fiscal year after a decision was made to increase the number of daily printed tickets.

However, it has only achieved a little over half that with only four months to go.

Meghalaya revives lottery

Over in Meghalaya, a state located in Northeast India, the state government has decided to revive its lottery operations.

Chief Minister, Mukukl Sangma told local media that it is looking to run a paper lottery, and that a tender process would be run to select a distributor to operate the lottery.

“The proposed operation of lottery would come under the new Lotteries (Regulation) Rules, 2010 notified by the Union ministry of home affairs,” Dr Sangma said.

Dr Sangma said that under the new rules, the first prize in any lottery scheme shall not be less an Rs 10,000, and ticket prices will cost not less than Rs 2.

The state government first introduced an online lottery in 2001, signing an agreement with a firm named “MS Associates”. The firm however, stopped operating in 2005 after an amendment of the company’s agreed tax liability.

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