Officials at the lottery department of Kerala, a state on India’s tropical Malabar coast, expect profits to decline 6-8 percent this fiscal year due to new Goods and Services Tax rules and revised lottery ticket prices which both took place in July. Despite the higher ticket prices, the number of tickets sold increased, officials said.
The price structure rose from 40-44 percent of the sales turnover to 50-51 percent. Prior to July, the lottery department’s profit was about 23 percent of total sales turnover, but that dropped to 15-16 percent. The lottery department also is required to pay taxes of $77,458 for each draw plus 12 percent of each ticket sold.
The Kerala lottery department rolls out seven weekly lotteries, all priced at 30 rupees (47 cents) per ticket. Bumper lotteries at higher prices are sold for Christmas-New Year, Summer, Vishu, Monsoon, Thiruvonam and Navaratri (Pooja bumper).
Last month, Kerala government officials said the lottery would generate $1.5 billion in revenue for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, following a decision to increase the number of daily printed tickets. But with only four months left in the fiscal year, slightly more than half of the daily printed tickets have sold.
In northeast India, officials in Meghalaya announced lottery operations would be revived. Chief Minister Mukukl Sangma said the government would run a paper lottery. A tender process will be run to select a lottery operator. “The proposed operation of lottery would come under the new Lotteries Regulation Rules, 2010 notified by the Union Ministry of Home
Affairs,” Sangma said. He stated under the new rules, the first prize in any lottery game would not be less than 10,000 rupees ($155.00) and ticket prices will cost not less than 2 rupees (3 cents).
The Meghalaya government introduced an online lottery in 2001 but the operators, MS Associates, went out of business in 2005 over a tax liability.
