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Better monsoon this year will help check inflation: Jaitley

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Mumbai: With rains this year having advanced well into the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said a better monsoon would help check food inflation.

“It appears that the rain gods may be kinder this year to us than they were last year,” he said at the Nabard foundation day celebrations here.

Expressing the hope that the monsoon would be as good as it was last month, Jaitley said the department of agriculture expects better rainfall in most parts of India for higher yields of oilseeds and pulses, whose prices are currently a concern in terms of inflation.

“I hope their estimates turn out to be true,” he said.

The finance minister also referred to Saturday’s official data on overall growth in indirect tax revenue collections during the first quarter and said rising tax revenues and improving macroeconomic fundamentals will take the economy to an accelerated growth trajectory.

“Saturday’s indirect revenue data for the first quarter did indicate that customs duty, excise duty and service tax, even without additional revenue measures, were up 14.5 percent over the past fiscal,” he said.

“There are some sporadic data which indicate a significant recovery,” the finance minister said.

“With the ongoing reforms process, and some more significant changes like goods and services tax in the pipeline, increased infra spending, emphasis on smart cities — when all these initiatives get onto the field, then our aspiration to cross that 8 percent growth and get to the 8-10 percent level is not something which is completely out of sight,” he added.

“The silver lining is that the revenue situation may be more comfortable, compared with last year,” Jaitley said

The overall growth in indirect tax revenue collections during the April-June quarter was 37.4 percent.

“The overall growth in indirect tax revenue (provisional) collections during the first quarter of current fiscal year, that is, April-June 2015, have increased from Rs.112,094 crore to Rs.153,980 crore suggesting an increase of 37.4 percent over the corresponding period in the last financial year,” an official statement said on Saturday.

It added that in June 2015, the indirect tax collections increased by 33.3 percent compared to June 2014.

These increases were spread across all three tax categories of “customs, central excise and service tax”.

“These collections reflect, in part, additional measures taken, including the excise increase on diesel and petrol, increase in clean energy cess, the withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles and consumer durables, and in June, the increase in service tax from 12.36 percent to 14 percent,” it said.

It further said these collections indicate that the underlying momentum in the economy is improving, across all sectors, including manufacturing, reflected in healthy excise tax collections.

“The growth in underlying indirect tax collections of 14.5 percent suggests a healthy increase in nominal gross domestic product growth, which constitutes the tax base for indirect tax collections,” the statement added.

Entertainment

Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists

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PureWin Online Betting

The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index

Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.

The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports

Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.

All for the Tourists

The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.

“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.

To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.

Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market

With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.

Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.

Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.

Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting

Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.

Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.

The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.

If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.

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