Inox and PVR Cinemas theatres will be shut on Tuesday in Chennai to protest against the local body taxes charged on Tamil and other regional films.
This comes after the theatres situated in the limits of Chennai corporation were asked to pay 10% more tax for new Tamil movies over the Goods and Sevices Tax (GST). Moreover, for the older Tamil movies, the theatres have been asked to pay 7% local tax and non-Tamil movies have to pay a tax of 20% and old non-Tamil movies 14%, says a report.
Inox has about nine theatres in Chennai. Kailash B Gupta, Chief Financial Officer, Inox Leisure Limited told The Hindu that they will be shut for a day and they will see what happens. However, he did not specify for how long the theatres will remain closed.
PVR cinemas are not accepting any online bookings for Tuesday shows in Chennai.
In July, the theatres in Tamil Nadu had gone on an indefinite strike against the state’s decision to levy an additional 30% tax over and above the GST rate of 28%. More than 1,000 theatres were shut and it had led to a loss of Rs 20 crores for three days. Then, the Tamil Nadu government agreed to withdraw its Municipal Tax and the strike was called off by theatre owners.
However, the ticket prices had gone up from Rs 120 to more than Rs 150 after GST was charged over and above the original price of the ticket.