Theatres to shut shop from March 16

Chennai: Cinema theatres across Tamil Nadu are likely to remain closed indefinitely from March 16, 2018, if the state government does not come forward to abolish the local body tax by then. A decision to this effect was taken on Thursday by the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners’ Association.
The association, which is largely represented by owners of stand-alone theatres, has put forward a four-point charter of demands, including abolition of local body tax, to the state government. Other demands include approval for construction of new theatres to be solely handled by Public Works Department (PWD), instead of CMDA and other agencies, besides increasing license renewal period for theatres to three years from the present one year and increasing the maintenance charges, being charged as part of ticket rates now.

However, multiplexes and theatres within Chennai city limits are unlikely to participate in the strike, though they declined to officially comment on it. Multiplex screens in the state and theatres in Chennai city together amount to about 180 of 1,050 theatres in Tamil Nadu.

Theatres in Tamil Nadu are already chugging along without new films, as Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC) has stopped release of new Tamil films from March 1, in their fight against digital service providers and their VPF (virtual print fee) charges.

“We are unable to operate theatres profitably due to increase in overall operational costs. Hence, we have asked the state government to write off the local body tax completely. If the government does not issue an order by March 15, we have decided to shut down theatres indefinitely from March 16,” Tiruppur K Subramaniam, joint president of the Joint Action Committee, formed by theatre owners in Tamil Nadu.

The state government charges 8% local body tax from theatres in addition to the GST, which ranges between 18% and 28%, depending on the ticket rates.

Theatres in Tamil Nadu had earlier downed their shutters for a few days last July, protesting government’s move to charge local body tax in addition to GST. Though initially the government did not relent, it later agreed to reduce the local body tax to 8% for Tamil films and up to 20% for other language films. While doing so, it also permitted revision of theatre ticket rates by about 25%.

According to Subramaniam, during earlier meetings, the chief minister had agreed to consider theatre owner demands. “Even after so many months, nothing has happened. Hence, we have been forced to take this decision,” he added.