The Tamil Nadu government has levied a 10 per cent entertainment tax on Tamil movies and 20 per cent on other language movies over the Goods and Services Tax.

While old Tamil films will attract a tax of 7 per cent, other language movies will be levied 14 per cent tax, according to a statement by the Revenue Department of Chennai Corporation.

The tax is applicable to all permanent and semi-permanent cinemas within Chennai Corporation limits effective September 27, the statement said.

The tax will be collected based on the returns filed by the proprietor before the commercial tax department. To ensure hassle-free tax remittance, system of stamping tickets is also done away with, according to the statement.

Tirupur Subramanian, a Coimbatore-based distributor and a panel coordinator to discuss GST issues with the State government, said a levy of 10-20 per cent tax over GST would make running theatre operations difficult and nearly impossible. “If this goes on, we will just have to shut down theatres,” he added.

Discussion today

Subramanian said the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Federation, Producer Council, Distributors Federation and Nadigar Sangam will hold a discussion either on Monday or Tuesday regarding the entertainment tax. “We will discuss the consequences with the government as well to do away with the additional tax burden,” he added. Subramanian said, “There is a possibility of indefinite strike if the discussions are not fruitful.”

The new entertainment tax is in response to a series of discussions that followed the State-wide protest by the theatre owners in July. The owners protested against the levy of 30 per cent entertainment tax over GST and theatres in the State were shut down for a week.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW