Govt collects Rs 754.5 million in revenue from casinos in seven months of current fiscal

KATHMANDU: Casinos have begun to clear their royalty arrears of late.

According to the Department of Tourism, one and a half dozen casinos have paid royalty and renewal fees to the government in the current fiscal year 2021/22 alone.

The data made available by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Monday showed that the government collected Rs. 754.5 million from casinos through application fee, license fee, renewal fee and royalty in the running fiscal alone.

The Ministry had begun crackdown against casinos not clearing their royalty arrears for long. Accordingly, Hotel Yak & Yati was shut by the government last week. The stern measures have resulted in the government getting revenues from casinos.

Kumari Chowk and Central Arrears Recovery Office had prepared royalty bills of casinos totaling Rs 1.9 billion and forwarded them to the Ministry, which swung to take action against businesses not paying their dues. Resultantly, Casinos have begun clearing their royalty and other arrears.

On Monday, Central Media Pvt. Ltd. paid Rs. 40 million in royalties to the government.

According to the Ministry, arrear recovery measures are underway against Casino operators’ not paying royalties.