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| Film industry appeals against service tax levy |
| Priyanka Joshi / Mumbai Mar 17, 2010, 00:34 IST |
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A group of prominent personalities from the film and entertainment sector plans to appeal against the proposed levy of service tax on the industry.
The consortium includes Yash Chopra, Boney Kapoor, Ronnie Screwvala and Mahesh Bhatt. It plans to meet excise officials in New Delhi on March 22.
In its Budget 2010-11 proposals, the Union government had, among other things, announced service tax on commercial use or exploitation of events like the IPL and T20 cricket tournaments. The consortium argues, however, that the Rs 9,600-crore Indian film and entertainment industry is battling spiraling costs and needs to be spared.
“Budget 2010-11 has proposed to bring copyright on recording of cinematographic films and sound recordings under the taxable category of intellectual property rights. The film and music industry is already burdened by VAT (value added tax) and now additional levy of service tax can harm the industry, that is in a critical mode after 2009,” said Yash Chopra, on the sidelines of the Ficci Frames 2010 conference here.
Chopra also pointed that with revenue share deals between producer and exhibitor, the industry had to now deal with multiple taxation.
He said: “We have already presented our draft proposals to the minister of information and broadcasting and have their (I&B ministry’s) support. The proposal will now be presented to the chairman of (the central board of) excise for further consideration.”
Amit Mitra, secretary general of Ficci, said: “Any increase in service tax and state-level entertainment tax will only lead to passing on the increased costs to the end consumer.” He indicated that state governments, too, needed to re-consider the escalating entertainment taxes levied on film exhibitors. Extending verbal support at the Ficci Frames meet, Ashok Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra said, “I assure the Indian media and entertainment industry that we would do everything to ensure they do not suffer.”
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