Lottery prices likely to go up in Kerala, dept to roll out new prizes

Kannur: The lottery department is planning to increase the cost of the weekly Kerala state lotteries from Rs 40 to Rs 50. It is learnt that the price change may delay because of the Covid crisis.

When the lottery dealers alleged that the hike in price will affect the sale, the department assured that the income of the dealers will double with the price hike.

With the increase of Rs 10, the department will introduce changes in the structure of prizes too. At present 3 lakhs of prizes are distributed while selling 1 crore lottery tickets. With the increase in the lottery ticket price, the department will also increase the total number of prizes distributed. 

A lottery ticket seller obtains Rs 7.50 while selling a ticket worth Rs 40. Hence, the price hike will help the seller to earn Rs 8.64 per ticket. Therefore, by selling 100 tickets, the seller can earn Rs 124. 

Kerala lottery department has been issuing six bumper lotteries annually. Though it cost Rs 300, all the tickets which taken for the sale will be sold out in the state. The state could obtain a profit of Rs 39 crore solely from the revenue of the last Onam bumper. 

It is reported that 60 per cent of the revenue collected is being distributed as prizes. The department has been earning a profit of only 3.5 per cent from the annual lottery sale as the GST is fixed as 28 per cent. Though the state government will get 50 per cent of this GST,  it could not be estimated as the income from the lottery. 

The state government is spending 1 per cent of the revenue from lottery tickets for the welfare funds of the lottery vendors. If there was no COVID crisis, a transaction of Rs 15,000 crore would be marked in the sector annually.

The government had procured a profit of Rs 5603 crore from the lottery sale between 2017 and 2021. The average income of Rs 1700 crore during 2017-2020 dropped to Rs 472 crore in 2021 due to the Covid crisis.