No more zero tax for lottery tickets in India.

On Sunday, the constitutional body tasked with overseeing the goods and services tax (GST) system in the country announced a dual tax rate for lottery tickets just in time before the new indirect tax regime rolls out on July 1.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the council decided that state-run lotteries, which do not have private distributors or marketing agents, would be charged a 12 percent GST rate, while lotteries operated by private distributors will fall under the highest tax slab of 28 percent.

The GST would be charged on the face value of the lottery tickets, not on the margin retained by the government or private distributors, said Jaitley.