PANJIM: In a major jolt to land casinos, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has issued notices to 10 casinos in Goa for allegedly evading payment of service tax. As per a national news report, the intelligence arm of the indirect tax department has asked these casinos to pay taxes on licence fee for three years from 2014-2016.
It says that the casinos will have to pay 15 percent service tax on their licence fee to be able to run their business as they ‘reserve the right to enter’ for customers. It is also learnt that some casinos have complied with the demands while others have taken the matter to the High Court of Bombay at Goa arguing that the licence fee they pay the government is equivalent to permission, making this tax demand questionable.
Herald’s attempts to contacting officials in the State government were in vain.
The Goa government recently hiked the licensing fee by 4.5 times claiming it would add Rs 150 crore to the annual revenue.
