This development comes after parliament´s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday issued strict instruction to the government to scrap their operating licenses for turning a deaf ear even to its final call to clear outstanding royalties and fines. [break]
PAC had earlier asked the government to take action against casinos defaulting on royalties and taxes, and instructed the government to cancel their operating licenses if they did not settle their revenue dues within a month.
Following the decision, most of the casinos went on to settle their dues at the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), but the four casinos continued to turn a deaf ear.
According to DRI, Casino Nepal has outstanding royalty and fines worth Rs 130 million, Casino Anna Rs 103 million, Casino Fulbari Rs 62 million and Casino Royal Rs 22 million.
“Despite repeated attempts, casinos operated by the Nepal Recreation Center (NRC) and others still have not paid their royalties and fines. Based on the spirit of our previous decision, PAC instructs the government to immediately scrap their operating licenses,” PAC said in its decision Friday.
The committee has further instructed the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Finance and DRI to recover the outstanding dues by selling the casinos´ property. In case disposal of property failed to generate enough money, it instructed the government to collect the deficit amount from hotels, pointing out that the licenses after all were issued to the hotels.
PAC further instructed the Ministry of Tourism to scrap all casino operating licenses issued in the name of individuals.
In an attempt to enforce restriction on Nepali nationals entering casinos, the committee also asked ministries concerned to maintain the log of casinos´ daily transactions and entrants.
PAC has asked all the ministries concerned to report it about the implementation of its Friday´s decision.
It also asked the Ministry of Tourism to furnish details of actions to be taken against the casino operators within 15 days. Similarly, PAC has instructed the ministry to solve all the issues related to casino employees, their rights and benefits as per the existing law.
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