THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sale of weekly lotteries rolled out by the State Lotteries Department has zoomed in the recent months even as the hullabaloo surrounding the possible re-entry of the other-state lotteries refused to die down.
Sources said the department had plans to increase the printing of four weekly lotteries by seven lakh tickets each.
The number of tickets of the charity lotteries - Karunya and Karunya Plus - would also be increased by 2.5 lakh tickets each.
“Currently 52.5 lakh tickets are printed for each of the five weekly lotteries and 27.5 lakh each for Karunya and Karunya Plus. The DLOs are finding it difficult to meet the increasing demand from agents,” the officials said.
It was only two months ago that the department increased the number of tickets of each weekly lottery from 49 lakh to 52.5 lakh. The printing of Karunya and Karunya Plus were also increased then.
However, the department is yet to get a positive response from its printing units in this regard. “The two hired units, C-Apt here and KBPS in Ernakulam, have almost reached their full capacity to deliver,” they said.
A long-pending demand of the Lotteries Department to hire a new printing unit is yet to get a green signal from the State Government.
The upward trend in sales has come as a breather to the government which faced wide criticism following the Supreme Court order barring it from passing restraints against the sale of Sikkim Lotteries.
Thiruvonam Bumper
The annual Thiruvonam bumper lottery sales too have hit the roof with 15.42 lakh tickets being sold till Tuesday.
Going by the current trend, the officials said that the sales of Thiruvonam bumper lottery are expected to rise by 4 per cent to outdo the revenue of `92.46 crore registered in 2013. The Lotteries Department has set a target of `5,500 crore turnover this fiscal.
The turnover in the 2013-14 stood at `3,793 crore and profit `903.77 crore. The department is the biggest non-tax revenue earner to the government for the past several years.