Next SC hearing to decide Casino Royale's fate
KATHMANDU:
The next hearing of the Supreme Court (SC) will decide the fate of Casino Royale that is housed in Hotel Yak and Yeti. Casino Royale is the only casino operating in the country without fulfilling the requirements of the Casino Regulation-2013, which the government had brought into force on July 22, 2014.
The government had taken a decision on April 19, 2014, to shut down all casinos that had not met the requirements as per the Casino Regulation, and scrap the licences of those that had not paid due royalty. Yet, Casino Royale, which still owes Rs 49.50 million in royalty, has been operating its business citing Supreme Court’s interim order to allow the casino to remain open for business.
In a bid to implement the law, the government had shut down the casino on November 21 last year. The Ministry of Home Affairs had mobilised the police to close down Casino Royale after it received a request from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. Then after, Casino Royale approached the court again and filed a writ of defamation against the government. The apex court again issued an interim order in favour of the casino.
The final hearing on the defamation suit was scheduled for Thursday, but a single bench of Justices Om Prakash Mishra and Dipak Raj Joshi issued a direction for both the cases — interim order for the casino to
remain open and defamation case — to be put forward together in the next hearing.
The date for the next hearing has not been finalised, informed Uttam Kharel, undersecretary at the Department of Tourism.The interim order issued by the Supreme Court has brought in some confusion because Casino Royale is in operation as per the previous regulation whereas there are two other casinos that have started operations as per the new regulation.
As per new provision, a casino now needs to have Rs 250 million paid-up capital and submit a bank guarantee of Rs 30 million to ensure royalty. Casinos are also required to pay Rs 20 million as licence renewal fees every fiscal.
In addition, based on new regulation, casino operators are obliged to submit windfall gain tax to respective tax offices before making any payment to the gamers.
Previously, there were no such provisions to operate a casino in the country. The government used to only fix the annual royalty for the casinos in fiscal Acts, which stood at Rs 40 million before the new regulation came into force.|
MoCTCA to call operators
KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has said that it is preparing to publish a public notice to summon the casino operators, who have not cleared their outstanding dues. As per MoCTCA, eight out of the 10 casinos previously in operation in the country have outstanding dues. Casino Nepal owes the government Rs 266.8 million, Casino Fulbari (Rs 160.86 million), Casino Anna (Rs 152.68 million), Casino Royale (Rs 49.50 million), Casino Everest (Rs 17.19 million), Casino Venus (Rs 3.51 million), Casino Star (Rs 2.96 million) and Casino Grand (Rs 0.83 million). — HNS
Source: THT
