Govt has not withdrawn casino bill - JVP
The government has not backtracked on or withdrawn the Strategic Development Projects Bill (casino bill), but merely withdrawn the gazette notification, which exempts casinos from paying taxes, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) alleged today.
By Ravi Ladduwahetty-Tuesday, 22 Oct 2013
By Aisha Nazim-
The government has not backtracked on or withdrawn the Strategic Development Projects Bill (casino bill), but merely withdrawn the gazette notification, which exempts casinos from paying taxes, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) alleged today.
Addressing a media briefing, JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said the government is intentionally misleading the public by claiming to have withdrawn the casino bill, which was due to be taken up for voting in Parliament tomorrow (24) and the day after (25).
“The casino bill has definitely not been withdrawn. It was, in fact, passed in Parliament on 10 November 2010. All of the political parties in the government had voted for it. What’s been put on hold now is the gazette notification, which granted casinos concessions, excepting them from paying any of the taxes in the country,” he said.
He asserted that the problem of the casinos is that it is not merely a place for gambling, but would also encourage drug use and prostitution.
Speaking further, Dissanayake pointed out that while it would be those in the upper-classes who would go to casinos and it would also be them who would be involved in drug deals, innocent and young girls from the rural areas of Sri Lanka are the ones who would get pulled into prostitution rings. (Ceylon Today Online)
By Ravi Ladduwahetty-Tuesday, 22 Oct 2013
The government last night decided to withdraw the proposed Casino Bill (The Strategic Management Bill) and present a new Bill in its place. The decision was taken at the Party Leaders' meeting at the Presidential Secretariat. "This will mean the government will not take up the proposed Bill for voting in Parliament on Thursday (24) and Friday ( 25), political sources told Ceylon Today, adding that it will be introducing a new Bill.
However, it is not known what the government will have in the new Bill, the sources said. Meanwhile, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) General Secretary and Parliamentary Group Leader, Ven. Athureliye Rathana Thera told Ceylon Today late last night, that the government decision was indeed a victory for the JHU in particular.
"We as a Party, pressurized the government and its leaders not to bring this Bill due to the vast social and economic degradation that it would have caused," the monk said.
