SHILLONG: The State Government is planning to restart online lottery.
Indicating this, official sources said a decision will be taken after examining both market and operating technology.
The Government is looking for a new option since the ten-year deal, which it had signed with the MS Associates to operate the online lottery, ended on August 22, 2012.
With the Government facing huge revenue loss due to failure of the earlier lottery deal, a senior official said that the Government would like to take all the necessary precautions before reviving the online lottery.
“We are presently trying to plug the loopholes of the previous deal which had allowed the private firm to manipulate with the clauses in the agreement. This time we will be incorporating more stringent clauses in the agreement,” the official said.
Stating that the Centre has come with a new Lottery (Regulation) Rules, 2010, the official said “We will have to formulate the new agreement in accordance with the new rules”.
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 several political 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 the audit 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.