You can bet on it! Punjab Government is getting ready to fill its ‘empty’ coffers with the money you put on race horses.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s gamble with the idea of setting up a casino in the State may not have paid off. But soon, you may find yourself laying a wager on horses and buying online lottery tickets. For, the Punjab Government is mulling a racecourse and introducing digital sweepstake in the State.
The game of betting in the IPl may have put you off, but the State is optimistic of making up for the losses it is suffering with the ban on single and double-digit lottery, and other forms of laying a bet.
After contributing crores to the State’s empty treasury by selling liquor and imposing tax on cigarettes, and tobacco products, the State is now gearing up to promote gambling.
Punjab government makes around Rs4,000 crore from liquor and Rs50 crore from the tax on cigarettes and tobacco products.
Only recently, possibilities of Punjab Government setting up casino in the State had put the State government in a fix. However, the controversy settled with the Deputy Chief Minister clarifying that Punjab would not go the ‘lV way’ by opening casino resort hotels in the State.
Now trotting towards its own racecourse in ludhiana, something that was mulled some two-year back, the Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday gave its go-ahead to the draft bill for the enactment of Punjab Horse Race (Regulation and Management) Act, 2013 to generate revenue to save the State’s beleaguered economy.
The draft Bill would provide for placing bets on the racehorses. Besides, the Bill would be sent for Centre’s approval, and then would be tabled in the State Vidhan Sabha for making it an Act.
The Act would provide for setting up, management and operation of race courses, betting activities and intermediaries involved and also for licensing, regulation, control and management of horse races on race courses, maintaining and keeping of horses at race courses, exhibition of horses and other processes of horse race and all matter connected therewith and incidental thereto, among other things.
In another decision to increase the State’s revenues, the State has also ‘log into’ technology by starting an online lottery system. The online lottery system would be conducted, operated and regulated as per provisions of the lottery Regulation Act, 1998 and the Punjab State lotteries Rules, 1998.
“We are expected to generate revenue of Rs200 annually by commencing this online lottery system. And for this, the Finance department would soon start the process of online tenders,” a senior Government official told The Pioneer.
The online system envisages offering lottery games through a network of computer terminals or such other devices as might be approved by the Government to be installed at retail locations. The terminals would be connected to a main data center at central headquarters.
The Government would appoint a distributor or a selling agent who would design and procure, install and commission, operate and maintain, promote and market and carry out other activities to be required for managing the online lottery.
The selection of the distributor or the selling agent would be done through tenders and a monitoring committee.
Sources revealed that the State Government had suffered huge losses, approximately amounting Rs300 crore annually, following the Supreme Court’s order banning single or double digit lotteries. And, the decision to start the online lottery is a move towards compensating that loss.
Citing revenue generation as a reason, the State Cabinet also imposed two per cent tax on Power of Attorneys in the State. Cabinet also gave green signal to bring an ordinance to impose two per cent stamp duty on Power of Attorney by amending Schedule 1A of the Indian Stamp Act.