In a first, GST Council votes to tax lotteries at uniform rate of 28%

In a first, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Wednesday resorted to voting to decide an issue. The controversial issue of the GST rate for lotteries was decided on the basis of voting, with the Council fixing a uniform tax rate of 28 per cent on both state and private lotteries with effect from March 1, 2020. All the earlier decisions by the Council had been taken through consensus. The move was a partial defeat for Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac's proposal on whose insistence voting was conducted. 

“It (voting) was not imposed by the Council. It was