Bhopal: Entertainment has always been a costly affair, be it visit to amusement park, cinema or any fun zone. Bhopalites, planning an outing with family at these entertainment zones should brace themselves up for shelling out extra bucks as the civic body is all set to increase the entertainment tax by around 20 per cent.
Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) in its council meet scheduled on Thursday in all probability will give its nod to the proposal on levying 20 per cent tax on entertainment activities including cinema, theatres, amusement parks and also on cabal TV.
If the council goes ahead with the proposal, movie ticket price will be go up from Rs 200 to Rs 240. Similarly, visit to the fun parks like snow city will also cost more as the ticket price will be hiked by 20 per cent. The prices of the cable connection, which currently ranges between Rs 300 and Rs 400 will also see a rise by around 20 per cent.
The civic bodies across the state are empowered to levy tax on such commercial entertainment activities being operated within the municipal limits. DTH service providers, cable operators and also services provided by telecom sector including ring tones, music videos, animated films etc will also come under the purview of the tax. If the proposal gets council’s nod then these services are set to get costlier by 20 per cent.
Mohammad Sageer, leader of opposition in the BMC when contacted said that the tax will directly affect the consumers who want to spend quality time with their families at entertainment zones. He said that the BMC should levy minimum tax so that the visitors are not much burdened. The BMC council is also likely to take up the issue of shops owned by the civic body.