State Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar supported the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals in the State with an excuse that they generate revenue. But the Congress spokesman Trajano D’Mello has the reason to believe otherwise.

D’Mello who had petitioned Goa Bench of Bombay High Court against various dues to be paid by EDM organisers to the State government, today challenged the Tourism Minister to place before public, the amount of revenue earned in the form of various taxes from the festival (EDM) organisers.

“The fact is that the EDM organisers owe crores of rupees, inspite of the outstanding dues, permissions were being granted which forced me to file a petition in December 2015. The court directed the State government to recover the dues as expeditious as possible,” the spokesman said.

D’Mello informed that, “without recovering the dues, permission was granted for the year 2015.”

“As no dues were paid, I filed another petition after which the court ordered that the permission to hold the music festival in the State for the year 2016 would not be considered until the EDM Organizers had cleared the amount demanded or to furnish a bank guarantee,” he added.

Team TNV