THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Lack of clarity on what constitutes a 'bumper lottery draw' might let Megha Distributors off the hook. The charge against the promoters of Sikkim lottery is that they had sold tickets for draws on August 23, 24 and 25 at higher prices after paying only Rs 7 lakh as advance tax instead of Rs 17 lakh stipulated for bumper draws.
Commercial Sales Tax (CST) officials themselves admit that Megha could argue that theirs was not a bumper draw but a continuation of their earlier ordinary schemes. Megha had raised the ticket prices to Rs 20 from Rs 10 and enhanced the prize money to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 20 lakh. The State's own lotteries such as Win Win, TwentyFifty and Kanakadhara, too, are priced at Rs 20 a ticket and their prize money is Rs 50 lakh. But these are not considered bumper lotteries.
The Kerala State Lotteries considers only those draws with a prize money of over a crore, and ticket prices of Rs 100 and more, as bumper draws. Megha will raise the discrimination clause and argue that the State had no right to brand its lottery as a bumper draw when State lotteries offered at the same price are considered ordinary.
Legal oversight, too, will come in handy for Santiago Martin and his group. Neither the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998, nor the Draft Rules framed under the Act in 2010 have defined bumper draws. The Act gives a loose, infinitely malleable, definition of bumper draws.
"Bumper draw of a lottery means a special draw of lottery conducted on or during a festival or other special occasions wherein the prize money offered is greater than the prize money offered in the case of other ordinary draw of lotteries,'' it says. The Draft Rules are silent on bumper draws. Megha Distributors have already begun attempts to extricate itself from the charge that it had not intimated the State tax authorities about the change of scheme.
In a response to the showcause notice served on them, Megha stated that it had indeed informed the tax authorities of the change in ticket prices.