Officials of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) and the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) said they are writing separate letters to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) so that those casinos which cleared their dues can get their licenses renewed.[break]
Five casinos - Casino Everest, Casino Tara, Casino Rad, Casino Venus and Casino Pokhara Grande - have cleared their dues worth more than Rs 80 million following the November 22 directive by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the government to close down the casinos failing to clear the dues within 15 days. PAC had directed the ministries concerned to collect the outstanding dues of Rs 490.18 million from nine casinos within 15 days.
After the PAC deadline expired, the casinos were provided additional time until Friday (mid-December) to clear the dues along with accrued interest as per the existing Financial Act.
Out of ten casinos in the country, only Casino Shangri La had cleared the dues before PAC´s instruction. Casino Anna, which had the highest outstanding dues, cleared the dues for the last five months of the current fiscal year. But a source at MoTCA disputed the payment claim, saying Casino Anna has cleared the dues of Rs 20 million only, which is the license renewal fee for this year.
Casino officials were arguing that they will not clear the dues for the period when Nepal Recreation Centre used to own the casino. Casino Anna still has to pay more than Rs 100 million to the government.
“We are going to seek permission for renewal of operating license of the six casinos that have cleared the dues but we have not decided anything about Casino Anna, which made only a partial payment,” the source said. Casinos have to pay a renewal fee of Rs 20 million every fiscal year.
The government has already scrapped the operating license of NRC about six months ago. NRC was running four casinos - Casino Nepal, Casino Anna, Casino Everest and Casino Tara.
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