Kannada films must pay exhibit tax

Kannada films must pay exhibit tax


Express New Service
18 Sep 2008 11:25:00 AM IST

BANGALORE: THE High Court on Wednesday, struck down the exemption of exhibit tax for screening of Kannada and other local language films in the State.

The court held that the provision, allowing an exemption of exhibit tax for screening Kannada and local language films in theatres under section 4 of the Karnataka Entertainment Act, 1958 was discriminatory in nature.

However, Justice D V Shailendra Kumar has allowed the exemption of entertainment tax for screening Kannada and other local languages films.

The petitioners - owners of Cauvery, Kailash, Urvashi, Pallavi, PVR Cinemas, Tribhuvan and other theatres - had challenged the exemption of entertainment and exhibit tax for screening Kannada, Tulu, Kodava, Konkani and Banjara language films. The petitioners had also challenged the Constitutional validity of section 3 1b, 3-A, 3-C and section 4 of the Karnataka Entertainment Act, 1958. The petitioners contended that the different rates of taxes levied for movies of different languages was discriminative and could lead to division of the society on linguistic basis.

While striking down the provision of section 4, the court observed that films produced in Kannada, Kodava, Tulu, Konkani and Banjara languages, which were either exempted or subjected to a lower rate of tax, was an act of discrimination. So, this portion of the Act can be declared as unconstitutional.

However, the court did not touch section 3-C of the Act. The court further observed, ‘’Section 3-C does not create any kind of discrimination. It provides an exemption or concession for screening Kannada and other local language films. It does not in any way affect the petitioners, who are all exhibitors of movies and are free to choose to exhibit movies of any language of their choice.

Order quashed

The High Court on Wednesday allowed theatres in the City to run more than four shows a day, quashing the Bangalore Urban District Magistrate order which restricted theatres to four films a day.

Navrang, Rex and Pradeep - theatre owners in the City - had filed a writ petition challenging the Magistrate notification on June 26, 2005. Justice N Kumar had quashed the notification and allowed the theatres to run more than four shows per day.

The petitioner argued that, the District Magistrate had no power to issue a circular pertaining to restraining the number of film shows.