PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has issued notices to the Central and State governments and the GST authorities in response to a petition filed by Delta Corp, and related casino operator companies challenging show cause notices issued by the tax authorities alleging shortfall of GST collection.
The High Court also took on record a statement by the authorities that they will take no final decision in the show cause notices without leave of the Court.
“This statement about not passing any final orders on the impugned show cause notice is accepted and the concerned respondents will have to abide by the same," the High Court bench of Justices M S Sonak and Bharat Deshpande ruled.
The petitioners challenged Rule 31A of the CGST Rules, 2017 and the show cause notice dated 27-09-2023, based on the said rule. The petitioners also challenged Section 15(5) of the CGST Act and to certain notifications and circulars issued under the CGST Act and rules made thereunder.
Delta Corp received fresh notices of alleged shortfall in the payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the tune of ₹6,384 crore. This comes nearly three weeks after Delta Corp had received tax shortfall notices amounting to Rs 16,822 crore.
At a recent meeting of the GST Council, the council decided to impose a tax of 28% on casino gambling.
“The challenge is to the imposition of service tax based on the amount of betting that takes place and not what the casino earns or what on the chips are sold but on the total amount of betting... it may be 8-10 times the total income of the casino,” Adv Harish Salve who represented the casino operators said.
The matter has been kept for final hearing in February 2024.
