KATHMANDU, APR 24 -
Tourism Minister Bhim Acharya said on Wednesday that the government would collect the dues owed to it by casino operators through legal means. He added that the ministry had withstood
pressure from varied quarters, and shut down the casino s for defaulting royalties and taxes in order to enforce the rule of law.
“The casino
s have not only defaulted government taxes but they have also not paid
salaries to their employees and rental to the hotels,” he said.
“Operating gambling houses without paying taxes is complete anarchy.”
On April 18, all the casino
s in the country were declared illegal as none of them obtained new
operating licences by the deadline which had been extended several
times. The Home Ministry padlocked all the casino s on April 20.
Since then, the employees of a number of casino s have been conducting protests against their owners accusing them of not paying their salaries for the last eight months.
The government had ordered the casino s to pay their outstanding royalties and obtain new operating permits as per Casino Regulation 2013. When the casino
s did not budge, the government repeatedly extended the time limit. The
last deadline given to the gaming houses expired on April 19.
This was the fourth time in nine months that the government had
extended the deadline to gaming houses who have been defiantly
continuing to operate without obtaining a licence and paying taxes.
Minister Acharya urged the operators to settle their unpaid dues if
they wanted to run their businesses again. “We are ready to address the
grievances of the casino s, but they have to settle the dues first,” he said. “Now casino s will be operated under government decree.”
There were 10 casino
s in the country, eight in Kathmandu and two in Pokhara, employing an
estimated 3,500 workers. Three of them, Casino Grand housed at the Hotel
Grand in Pokhara, Casino Shangri La housed at the Shangri La Hotel
Kathmandu and Casino Fulbari housed at the Fulbari Hotel in Pokhara, had
closed before the government moved against them.
The government brought the new Casino Regulation into effect on July 16, 2013 in a bid to keep the wayward casino
s under a firmer grip. It decided to get tough as they were habitually
defaulting taxes and disregarding the rule barring Nepalis from entry.
Subsequently, the casino
s went to the Supreme Court to have the new regulation cancelled.
However, on March 21, the court rejected their plea ruling that the
regulation had been prepared as per an earlier court order to streamline
the casino s.
The casino s owe more than Rs 657.66 million in outstanding taxes and royalties to the government. The issue of casino
s came to light after it was found that many of them had been operating
without renewing their licences and defaulting taxes since 2006.
The government was able to recover around Rs 150 million from some casino s after the now-defunct Public Accounts Committee ordered on Nov 22, 2011 that defaulting casino s be closed down.
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