The committee formed to look into the concerns of the film industry on the Tamil Nadu government’s move to add 30% local body tax to Goods and Services tax (GST) will hold its first round of meeting this week.
“The meeting is likely to happen on Thursday. Eight members from the film industry will be a part of this committee,” said a source from the film fraternity. Abirami Ramanathan, president of the Tamil Nadu Cinema Theatre Owners Federation, said that the meeting will happen on Thursday but refused to get into further details.
The committee will have four representatives from the Tamil Film Chamber of Commerce including Mr. Ramanathan, T.A. Arulpathi, Tiruppur Subramaniam and ‘I Dreams’ Murthi. The remaining four members are from the Tamil Film Producers Council. “The team includes actor Vishal, general secretary of Nadigar Sangam and president of Tamil Film Producers’ Council, Kathiresan, Prabhu and R.K. Selvamani.” The committee will also include State government officials from different departments such as Commercial Taxes and Registration department, Home, Prohibition and Excise, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj and Finance.
Exemption clauses
The committee has been advised to examine the request of the Tamil Film Chamber of Commerce and Tamil Film Producers Council regarding revision of the rates of the cinema tickets and issues pertaining to entertainment tax.
“They will also examine the exemption provisions that existed previously and the need to extend the same to the new Tamil Nadu Local Authorities Entertainment Tax Act 2017 and to suggest/recommend the procedure in this regard,” said a theatre owner who wished anonymity.
The committee has been asked to submit the report to the government at the earliest.
Another source in the film industry said that there was also a request to revise the rate of tickets during special shows and holidays within the ceiling fixed by the government (as in the case of Mumbai and other cities). Tamil Nadu has 1,127 screens with over 6.14 lakh seats and the state has a ₹120 cap on movie tickets.
Last week, theatres across Tamil Nadu downed their screens for four days protesting the State government’s move to add a 30% local body tax to the 18 % (for tickets priced less than ₹ 100) and 28 % (for tickets above ₹ 100) Goods and Services Tax that was introduced by the Union government from July 1. The loss incurred by the theatres during the four day shutdown was pegged at ₹ 15 crore.