In Coimbatore region, which covers Tirupur, Coimbatore, Erode and the Nilgiris districts, theatres were closed on Monday as part of the State-wide protest.
According to R.S. Baalu, secretary, Coimbatore,Tirupur, Erode, and the Nilgiris Districts Theatre Owners’ Association, there were 175 theatres with a total of more than a lakh seats.
“There is no talk about the loss we incur because of closing down. The local body tax above the GST would make it impossible for us to run business,” he said.
“Out of the fixed ticket price we need to pay the distributors, the taxes, and the maintenance costs. This would not be viable.”
The Government should either increase the ticket rate or remove the local body tax. In places such as Tirupur, where the labour population is high, the only entertainment is cinema, he pointed out.
resending...(already sent in the morning)
Tirupur Staff Reporter adds:
The entire 56 cinemas in Tirupur district, with a seating capacity of nearly 50,000, remain closed on Monday.
M. Subramaniam, president of Cinema Owners Association (western region) told The Hindu that the cinema owners here were not against the GST implementation per se. “We are ready to pay the 28 % tax under the GST regime. The problem is with the 30 % entertainment tax already being slapped by the local bodies which takes the cumulative tax to 58 %. With this level of net taxation, we can not achieve break-even point, leave alone profits from the operations. Hence, the 30 % tax should be scrapped taking into consideration that the industry had come under the GST regime,” he said.
