PAC issued such an instruction mainly as the existing law makes it mandatory for the casino operators to pay royalty for the new fiscal year by the end of the second month of the fiscal year. [break]
The royalty amount for operating a casino is Rs 20 million. Only Casino Shangri-La has complied with the law so far.
PAC issued the strong-worded instruction to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), Home Ministry and the Government of Nepal. “Casinos that do not bother to comply with the law do not deserve to continue operations. Hence, we have asked the government to shut them down within 15 days,” said Ram Krishna Yadav, chairman of PAC.
PAC further directed the ministries concerned to collect the outstanding revenue of Rs 490.18 million from nine casinos within 15 days and submit the report to the committee.
The committee also expressed serious concerns over growing defiance in implementation of committee´s earlier instructions and suggestions by different government authorities.
The committee also instructed MoTCA and the government to immediately formulate guidelines to regulate the operation of casinos. “We had issued this instruction in the past as well, but it was not implemented. Hence, we have re-instructed the government to formulate the guidelines and enforce them within a month,” said Yadav.
Only Casino Shangri-La has cleared the dues as of mid-November, 2011.
The government has already scrapped the operating license of Nepal Recreation Centre that runs four casinos about five months ago. Casino Nepal, Casino Anna, Casino Everest and Casino Tara are under NRC and having outstanding dues of Rs 147.3 million, Rs 129.59 million, Rs 20.1 million and Rs Rs 13.4 million respectively.
Similarly, the other five casinos which will be shut down as per the PAC instructions include Casino Royal, Casino Rad, Casino Venus, Casino Fulbari and Casino Pokhara Grande, which have outstanding dues of Rs 45.2 million, Rs 20.5 million, Rs 13.6 million, Rs 80.9 million and Rs 18.30 million respectively.
PAC on Tuesday had summoned chief secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Krishna Hari Banskota, MoTCA secretary Dr. Ganesh Raj Joshi, Secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office (PMO) Lilamani Paudel, Director General of Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) Shanta Bahadur Shrestha along with other government officials.
Related story
Govt collects Rs 764.50 million in royalty dues from casinos, s...
