Shillong, July 19: The Meghalaya government is yet to obtain Rs 35 crore from a firm for running an online lottery in 2002 in the state.

Even after eight years, MS Associates, which had conducted the online lottery, is yet to pay the amount to the government.

The delay on the part of the government to get back the dues at a time when the state is not financially sound has also evoked criticism.

Opposition leader Conrad Sangma said the government had to find ways to get back the amount. Considering the poor financial position, the government should take the matter seriously, he added.

The commissioner and secretary taxation, P.W. Ingty, told The Telegraph that the department had been asked to work out necessary papers to pursue MS Associates to get back the amount.

He said the chief minister was aware of the matter and was exercising various options to get it back.

“We are concerned over the matter and the department is working on the measures to get back the amount,” Ingty said.

The MS Associates is yet to pay the dues from 2002 despite several attempts by the government to remind the company about it. In 2001, the government had signed an agreement with MS Associates to conduct the online lottery with a guaranteed amount of Rs 3 crore to the government in the first year.

However, after protests from the pressure groups and the Opposition the agreement was amended in 2002 under which the company had to pay not less than Rs 12 crore a year and it could conduct not less than 4,000 draws per year.

In October 2004 MS associates asked the state government to reduce the minimum guaranteed amount from Rs 12 crore to Rs 6 crore per year. Later in 2005, the company arbitrarily stopped the online lottery business in the state.

According to the audit report of the CAG, during the four years of operation from 2002 to 2005, the distributor was liable to pay Rs 54.08 crore according to the terms of the agreement with the Meghalaya government. But the company had paid only Rs 19 crore leaving a balance of Rs 35.08 crore.

Earlier, expressing its inability to pay the amount mentioned in the amended agreement, the company had even written to the state government in January 2005 to treat the online lottery on a par with the paper lottery.

An official with the taxation department said the government in January 2006 had constituted a negotiation committee to examine the suggestion of MS Associates with an aim to get back the pending amount.

The view of the committee was that the government could not treat online lottery on a par with paper lottery.

The official said the first option before the government was to have an out of court settlement with the company. “If the company still does not respond, we will have to move court,” he added.