RK Selvamani, President of FEFSI union, is happy that the strike has been called off. He addressed the media and raised some of the issues that require amendment for the improvement of both the producers’ condition and also to benefit the audiences.
RK Selvamani said: “We have said that, every decision taken by the Producer Council must be supported by every association because only when there is unity it helps. June has come now and everyone who gets daily wages will be affected. So people who depend on cinema asked us to push the strike for a couple of months. GST which is 28 percent affects a lot of films down south and their revenue is slashed. In the name of nationalising movies, they are actually supporting Hindi films and killing regional films. There is no law to safeguard our movies against piracy and it’s ill effects. Hence we are sorry to say the Central government is giving us a punishment.
We have a demand that GST has to be reduced by minimum 5 percent as the existing 28 percent tax is a whopping number. If producers also join us, we will strongly try to implement this demand. With unity, we will bring the attention of the Central government to our demands and politely explain our problems. For the past 12 years, we have had these demands and we are trying to fulfill them.
Hence we really want to reduce the GST to benefit everyone and also banish piracy. There is a confusion for many whether cinema is an art or a profession. Take it however you want, we really hope the central government understands our problems. This 28 percent is actually going to be snatched from the people and not from us. Normal people will only be affected by this high hike in GST and not the rich people who will sit and watch movies at their homes. Do not put this burden on the people is what we are trying to say! Thank you."