SHILLONG: The State Government is yet to take any decision on reviving the online lottery.
Indicating this here on Wednesday, official sources said that the Government was looking for a new option after the ten-year deal which it had signed with the MS Associates to operate the online lottery in the State ended on August 22 2012.
“The Government now has decided to go slow on the matter,” sources added.
With the Government facing huge revenue loss due to failure of the earlier lottery deal, a senior government official said that the Government would like to take all the necessary precautions before reviving the online-lottery.
“We are presently analysing the lacunae prevailed in the previous deal which had allowed the private firm to manipulate with the clauses in the agreement by delaying the payment of the dues to the Government. This time we would be incorporating more stringent clauses in the new agreement,” the senior government official said.
Meanwhile, the senior official informed that the Centre has formulated a new Lottery (Regulation) Rules, 2010.
“We would have to formulate the new agreement in accordance with the Lottery (Regulation) Rules, 2010 of the Centre,” the official said.
In 2001, the government had signed an agreement with MS Associates to conduct the online lottery with a guaranteed amount of Rs 3 crore to the government in the first year.
However, after protests from the pressure groups and the Opposition parties the agreement was amended in 2002 under which the company had to pay not less than Rs 12 crore a year and it could conduct not less than 4,000 draws per year.
In October, 2004, MS associates asked the state government to reduce the minimum guaranteed amount from Rs 12 crore to Rs 6 crore per year. Later in 2005, the company arbitrarily stopped the online lottery business in the state.
According to a report of the CAG, during the four years of operation from 2002 to 2005, the distributor was liable to pay Rs 54.08 crore according to the terms of the agreement with the Meghalaya government. But the company had paid only Rs 19 crore leaving a balance of Rs 35.08 crore.