GST implementation will come into practice from this 1st of July (Saturday), and the movie ticket prices will be hiked from that day. About this, the producer's council has decided to make a plea to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to revise the tax percentage for the entertainment industry, which is now placed at 28%.
An official press statement has come from Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council, which reads, "Producers of South Indian film industries comprising of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada are coming together on Friday (30th June) to put forth their plea to the central government. According to GST rollout, theatres that have their ticket prices below 100 rupees are eligible to pay only 18% tax whereas, theatres and multiplexes whose ticket prices are more than 100 rupees are entitled to pay a whopping 28% tax. We would be putting forth our third representation to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday. The council had earlier given a couple of representations on how GST should be levied upon the film industries.
We wanted the films in regional languages to be exempted from GST completely when non-regional movies could be taxed at a lower rate. However, foreign language films can be taxed at a higher GST rate than the non-regional films. We also said that the GST would affect the industries which has lakhs of skilled laborers in it. We have also highlighted the problems faced by them and have suggested a solution in the representation. We hope the government hears our plea and intervenes soon," said the Presidents of the respective councils. The letter was also signed by Kamal Haasan.