“We have instructed the finance and tourism ministries to recover outstanding dues from the casinos as per the decision of the finance ministry,” PAC Chairman Ram Krishna Yadav said after the meeting on Wednesday.[break]
The meeting of finance ministry about a month ago had decided to extend the payment deadline for casinos till the end of current fiscal year. Four casinos - Casino Anna, Casino Royale, Casino Nepal and Casino Fulbari -- owe Rs 400 million in revenue to the government.
The PAC on the day had summoned Minister for Finance Barsha Man Pun and Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Lokendra Bista Magar to enquire about the casino bylaws and the progress made on dues recovery.
The committee had earlier directed the authority concerned to recover Rs 490.18 million from nine casinos and shut down casinos failing to clear outstanding dues within 15 days. Following the direction, the government had recovered Rs 80 million from Casino Everest, Casino Tara, Casino Rad, Casino Venus and Casino Pokhara Grande.
However, Casino Royale, Casino Nepal and Casino Fulbari have not paid royalty as well as license renewal fee to the government. Casino Anna, which has the highest outstanding dues, has cleared the dues for the current fiscal year. It, however, is yet to clear outstanding dues worth more than Rs 100 million.
Members of the committee have instructed the tourism ministry to formulate and implement casino bylaws within a month of time. The MoF and the Ministry of Law and Justice (MoLJ) have already given their feedbacks on the draft bylaws prepared by MoTCA.
In the bylaws, the tourism ministry has proposed that big taxpayers be allowed to play in the casinos. The MoF, however, has rejected the proposal. It has clearly stated that Nepalis should be completely barred from casinos. The MoLJ is also against allowing Nepalis into casinos.
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