Nepal to shut down nine casinos

A meeting of the Committee this week issued directives to close down the casinos within the next 15 days. The meeting has also directed the Ministries of Finance, Tourism and Home Affairs to scrap the licenses of nine casinos which operating without paying royalty to the government.

The listed casinos are Everest, Tara, Royal, Anna, Nepal, Venus, Rad, Phulbari and Pokhara Grand. Though proprietors of these casinos were asked to get their licenses renewed within mid July, they have not followed the government directions yet.

As per the Financial Act, any individual or hotel has to pay Rs. 20 million annually to the government as royalty for operating a casino. The government has yet to collect dues of over 490 million from these casinos.

Of them, the Everest Casino Hotel tops the list of those failing to clear the dues with Casino Venus in the bottom. They have to pay dues worth Rs. 210 million and Rs. 13 million respectively to the government.

At the meeting, Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, Madhav Ghimire and Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota suggested the enforcement of the Act.

Besides, the meeting has directed all the ministries concerned to formulate and implement the operation guidelines related to the casino and to raise the dues within a month.