Kerala to stall move on lottery ban

Kerala to stall move on lottery ban
UNITED NEWS OF INDIA

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 14: The Kerala government is up in arms against the Union Cabinet's decision to ban all state-run lotteries as it will affect the livelihood of more than a quarter million people, besides causing a wedge in the state's exchequer.

In a state where the unemployment problem is already severe, a decision to ban the ``fortune industry'' which gives employment to more than 250,000 people, will be disastrous, notwithstanding its consequences on the economy of the state.

Kerala finance minister T Sivadasa Menon said the state government would exert all possible pressure to stall the introduction of the Bill seeking to ban lotteries in the Lok Sabha. If the decision is implemented, Kerala would be the worst-affected. The state government earned a revenue of Rs 16.5 crore from state lotteries every year, while the Centre gets at least Rs 15 crore a year towards income tax from the winners of raffles.

He said the decision would deal a severe blow to Kerala which had been efficiently runningits state-owned lottery during the past 30 years. More than 500 people were employed in the directorate of state lotteries and the department of lotteries. There are about 28,000 recognised agents, besides 250,000 people, mostly handicapped or the aged, who are dependent on the commission from the sale of lottery to eke out a living.

In a state where private and single-digit lotteries are not allowed, the stories of lottery-related suicides and other related crimes are unheard of. ``Here the entire system is transparent and there is no scope for money laundering by the prizewinners,''said state lotteries director A Sasidharan Nair.

Nair said 20 per cent of the state's non-tax revenue was earned from the lotteries. So the decision would have serious impact on the economy of the state also.

The Kerala lotteries department runs four weekly lotteries ``Maveli,'' ``Periyar,'' ``Soubhagya'' and ``Kairali'' and the monthly bumper tickets. In addition to the state-run lotteries, nearly 60 lotteries of otherstate governments are also available in the market. It is only in Kerala that a government department has been constituted to run lotteries. Elsewhere, the business is managed by organisers who share the profits with the state governments.

The Kerala lottery was launched in 1967 to mobilise resources for the state's development activitites. The profit, which was Rs 143 lakh during the first year, had shot up to Rs 1.5 crore each during the second and third years of the inception of the lottery. The estimated receipt from the lottery scheme in the 1998-99 budget was Rs 160 crore and expenditure Rs 93.24 crore.