Kerala Resumes Lottery Ticket Sales After Two Months
Kerala government, last Thursday, resumed the sale of lottery tickets in the state after two months. This is in line with the announcement earlier made by Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac to resume the sale of lottery tickets post lockdown 3.0 that ended 17th March. The actual date of resuming ticket sales changed to 21st May from the earlier announced date of 18th May.
The directorate of lottery in the state had stopped lottery sales on March 21 to curb the spread of novel coronavirus in Kerala.
The state saw sales of 1.39 lakh tickets of eight lotteries, on Thursday. In May, only the tickets of postponed draws are to be sold. Eight lottery draws in Kerala were postponed by the directorate of lottery, when the sale of lottery tickets was stopped two months back. These draws will be held in the month of June. New draw tickets will also be made available in June.
Kerala Department of Lotteries has a network of about 35,000 lottery ticket agents and 100,000 retailers. The lottery sector was in a crisis and many lottery agents were jobless in the state during the past two months.
Even though the sale of lottery has now resumed in the fourth phase of the nation-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, as per a report in Times Now News, Ramesan B, a retail lottery ticket seller in Thiruvananthapuram said, "we are witnessing fall in sales as people stay at home due to lockdown".
Kerala government had planned to resume the sale of lottery to support lottery vendors and the health sector with the revenue earned from lottery sales.
On another note, Kerala High Court recently declared Kerala Tax on Paper Lotteries Act Unconstitutional on 30th April 2020. The bench held that the state lacks the legislative competence to levy taxes on the state lotteries under the impugned act.
To read more about Kerala lottery draws, prices, results, taxes, etc., visit our detailed guide on the state’s lottery.
Other Related posts:
January 17, 2019 – Government notifies 8-member committee to decide lottery GST rates; panel to submit report by next GST Council meeting
January 14, 2019 – No decision taken on GST rate reduction on lotteries; matter referred to GoM
January 3, 2019 – GST council to decide on lowering tax rate for lotteries on 10th January
