From 28% to 40%: A Death Sentence for Horse Racing?

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The recent announcement rationalizing GST into two primary slabs of 5% and 18% offered a glimmer of hope for India's beleaguered horse racing industry, which has been strangled by a punitive 28% GST since 2017. However, this hope is now clouded with alarming uncertainty. Disturbingly, there are indications that the government may adamantly enforce a devastating "sin tax" of 40% on the sport.

Such a move would be nothing short of a death sentence. The previous 28% rate was draconian enough, crippling the legal totalizator and pushing the industry toward collapse while fueling a massive illegal betting ecosystem. A 40% tax is unconscionable and would irrevocably destroy this 150-year-old sport. It would erase the livelihoods of over 1.5 lakh people employed directly and indirectly, many in the agrarian supply chain, while maintaining a glaring double standard. This moral stand against a regulated sport remains absent for other forms of speculation, like the stock markets, which are astronomically larger in volume. The choice is clear: a rational tax rate that allows a legacy industry to survive and contribute, or a prohibitive levy that will kill it outright.