Casinos in Goa to be regulated & mining costlier

(PTI) The casinos in Goa will now be insulated from money laundering menace with a high level committee recommending comprehensive legislation and setting up of gaming commission to regulate the casinos in the state.State Chief Minister Digambar Kamat presenting annual budget said casinos have been brought under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. "A committee formed by the Centre has recommended a comprehensive legislation and setting up of an autonomous gaming commission to regulate casinos in the state," Kamat said.The Chief Minister said the committee has also recommended use of standardised software for gaming machines to provide better MIS (management information systems) as also to improve revenue collection.Kamat stated that implementation of these measures will lead to an increased revenue collection of at least Rs 50 crore. Regarding the mining industry in Goa will now have to shell out more as fee for water and air consent, depending on the environmental damages caused by the firm. In the budget presented today, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, has proposed that the Goa Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules, 1988 and the Goa Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules, 1989 be amended."The amendment will be applicable only for mining industry and the operating mining units, wherein they will be charged a fee, based on the production capacity of ore extracted and overburden generated, separately for air consent as well as water consent," Kamat told the State Legislative Assembly today.