Responding to the supplementary questions on issues related to Nagaland state lotteries raised by NPF MLA Kuzholuzo Nienu, the Leader of the August House, Neiphiu Rio stated that there are no cases against the Nagaland State Lottery either with Central Bureau Investigation or Enforcement Directorate (CBI, ED) or GST or Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG). However, there have been registered cases against individuals involved in selling fake tickets of Nagaland State lotteries.

He stated that, activities are being carried out on the behest of business rivalries to blackmail the Nagaland State Lottery, particularly the distributors. Rio mentioned that FIR no. 241 of 2022 and FIR no. 206 of 2023 was filed in the Itanagar South Police Station against the gang of criminals who committed illegal activities, cases have also been filed by the North Police Station and Nagaland Police Headquarter (PHQ) in the State.

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He stated that other states are also allowing Nagaland lottery to be sold and they are getting maximum benefit while the state is only getting a meagre annually which is about 30 crores but others sellers are getting GST of 28 percent which rounds to thousand crores. “When the State sold the lotteries, 30 percent of the tax collection goes to centre and 20 percent of the tax collected is given to the state and we only get few commission” which is about 30 crores, “Our lotteries are sold in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Goa, Sikkim and Meghalaya,” the CM said.

Further, Leader of the House Neiphiu Rio, in response to the starred questions raised by Kuzholuzo Neinu on Nagaland state lotteries enquiry by CA&G of India, Central and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), stated that CA&R conducts audit regularly. However, they are not known to conduct enquiries and said, we have no knowledge of any enquiry by GST.

Further, the Chief Minister stated that Directorate of Lotteries had furnished a reply in response to a meeting called by the MHA to discuss the working of Nagaland State Lottery in details and the reply was found satisfactory. He also stated, there is no known case of evasion of GST as alleged and no cases has been investigated against the Nagaland state lotteries by the Central agencies Viz, CBI, ED etc.