Govt yet to recover Rs 35 cr lottery dues

SHILLONG: Even before recovering over Rs 35 crore as lottery dues from MS Associates owned by Congress member and former Assam MP Mani Kumar Subba, the state government has gone ahead inking lottery deal with other firms.
MS Associates was entrusted to operate online lottery in the state but failed to carry on with the task resulting in the loss of Rs 35 crore to the state exchequer.
When asked, an official dealing with the matter said earlier negotiations were on with the company to realise the dues but in vain.
“We are yet to recover the pending dues,” the official added.
In 2001, the state 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.
Later, there were protests by pressure groups and opposition parties compelling the government to amend the agreement in 2002.
With the new agreement, 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.
However, in October 2004 MS associates had asked the government to reduce the minimum guaranteed amount from Rs 12 crore to Rs 6 crore per year.
Subsequently in 2005, the company arbitrarily stopped conducting online lottery in the state.
The CAG that carried out an audit of the online lottery deal said during the four years of operation from 2002 to 2005, the distributor was to pay Rs 54.08 crore according to the terms of the agreement with the Meghalaya government. However, the company had paid only Rs 19 crore leaving a balance of Rs 35.08 crore.
Recently, after the government hurriedly released the lottery tender, the affected parties had sought intervention of the High Court, which will hear the case in January.