Theatres in Coimbatore and Madurai will not screen Diwali movie releases until the Tamil Nadu government does away with the local body tax, said Tirupur Subramanian, a Coimbatore-based distributor.

Subramanian, who was also a panel coordinator to discuss GST issues with the State government, told BusinessLine that in a discussion on Tuesday that the theatre owners and distributors from Coimbatore and Madurai districts have decided not to screen Diwali movie releasestill the local body tax is recalled. “Theatres in other cities will take a call on the double taxation after the theatre owners meeting on Wednesday in Chennai,” he added.

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, which was effective from September 27, 2017 and was heavily criticised by the film industry.

Multiplex Association of India (MAI) theatres in Chennai downed their shutters from today to protest against the levy of local body tax by the Tamil Nadu government.

MAI stated in a press release that levy of local body tax will result in double taxation on an industry, which is already reeling under the impact of high tax rates. Deepak Asher, President, Multiplex Association of India, said in the statement that if the tax is levied, it will make the cinema exhibition industry unviable and will eventually kill it. He appealed to the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and D Karthikeyan, Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation, to withdraw the tax to ensure the survival of the industry.

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