The first round of talks to discuss local body tax on cinema tickets in Tamil Nadu and ticket pricing was inconclusive on Thursday. The committee will meet again on July 24.

Abirami Ramanathan, President, Tamil Nadu Cinema Theatre Owners and Distributors Association, said the one-hour discussion with the state government was not fruitful.

Around 1,000 theatres in Tamil Nadu closed shutters for four days from July 3 to protest the 30 per cent corporation tax levied by the state government. The state government waived the tax and set up a 16-member committee with eight representatives from the industry and the government each to resolve the issue.

Apart from removing the corporation tax, theatre owners’ demand included flexible pricing. “Rather than fixing a cap, we want flexible pricing, which gives us the right to fix the price of tickets depending on demand,” Ramanathan said. He claimed that theatres would not inflate ticket prices. To ensure this, the film industry has asked the state to let the theatre owners fix a minimum of ₹30 and maximum price of ₹175 plus Goods and Services Tax.

For instance, a blockbuster like Baahubali will be priced at ₹175 for all shows whereas other movies will be priced less when the demand is low. “If the price is low, it will draw crowd instead of running empty,” Ramanathan added.

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