Casino fee hike: Govt studying operators’ demand

PANAJI

: The state government is studying the casino operators’ demand to review the decision to hike the fees. Chief secretary Dharmendra Sharma, who is also holding the charge of home secretary, has forwarded the casino operators’ representation to the finance department to assess the demand.

The operators recently, submitted representations to the home department and cabinet advisory committee to reconsider the decision. A senior home department officer said the petitions were mostly by individuals and a few were joint representations. “After accessing the casino operators demand, if there is a need to reconsider the decision then chief minister Manohar Parrikar would be consulted,” a senior government officer said.

To increase the state’s revenue, the government hiked the casino licence fees by up to 4.5 times. The finance department order came into effect from April 1. Goa has six offshore casinos and nine land-based casinos. The order will increase the annual revenue by approximately Rs 150 crore.

The annual recurring fee for offshore vessels with capacity of over 400 passengers has been hiked by 3.5 times, which means the new fee stands at Rs 40 crore as against the earlier Rs 12 crore. The hike in the same fee for other vessels ranges between 2.5 and 4.5 times.

For offshore casinos with passenger capacity above 200 and up to 400, the fee has been hiked to Rs 30 crore a year, while vessels with passenger capacity of up to 200 it has been increased to Rs 25 crore. The licence transfer fee for onshore casinos has been increased to Rs 30 crore, while for offshore casinos the fee stands at Rs 50 crore.


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