Govt takes steps to start draw of state lottery soon

Kolkata: The state government is taking all measures to start the draw of West Bengal State Lottery at the earliest. Sources said that the state government would float a tender to finalise franchisee to conduct the same.

The preparation to float the tender has already been initiated and it is expected to take place within a very short period of time.

This comes at the time when the draw of the state lottery has completely stopped after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the same has gone up to 28 per cent from 12 per cent. The GST has gone up from March 1 and the draw has stopped from March 2.

With the increase in the GST, the distributors were incurring heavy loss. Consequently, they decided to stop selling the same. This is also leading to a heavy loss in the state's exchequer as well as the profit out of same was Rs 223 crore in the last fiscal from only Rs 8 crore that was the figure a few years ago. The state's share of GST out of the same was around Rs 140 crore and it was the same for the Centre.

The sale of the state lottery went up with a series of steps taken by the West Bengal State Lottery Directorate and it includes an increase in the prize money. With the increase in the prize money, the state lottery came up as a tough contender for other lotteries as the buyers had started showing an inclination towards drawing of West Bengal State Lottery.

Sources said that there are many other states where a similar process of floating tender is followed to finalise a franchisee. Now the Bengal government is also taking steps to floating tender for the same. The process of preparing the necessary documents has also started.