Cinemas outclass tax department with out pass

Cinemas outclass tax department with out pass


Y Maheswara Reddy
First Published : 27 Oct 2008 11:59:00 AM IST
Last Updated :

BANGALORE: In Sandalwood parlance, an out pass is issued when a cine-goer has to leave the hall midway to attend to some pressing matter. But most cinema halls in Bangalore, especially those on the outskirts of the city, issue out passes to evade a pressing matter — entertainment tax.

Theatres such as Rajeswari Chitramandira on Airport Road and Thulasi and Srinivasa at Marathalli issue out passes in lieu of cinema tickets. Vinayaka issues a ticket with no details on entertainment tax. Though the seal of the Entertainment Officer is mandatory, none of the tickets issued by Vinayaka theatre has it.

Non-Kannada films attract 40 per cent entertainment tax under the Karnataka Entertainment Tax Act 1958. Most of these theatres screen Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. On a ticket of Rs 50, the theatre management has to pay Rs 20 as entertainment tax. However, by not issuing tickets, they save on that amount.

V B Maheswarappa, Entertainment Tax Officer I, told this website's newspaper that he had visited these theaters “twice from April” but found nothing amiss. And probably Maheswarappa never will because reliable sources in the entertainment tax department told this website's newspaper that for a consideration certain members inform theatres of such visits.

President of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, Jayamala, says a few bad apples are bringing disrepute to honest cinema halls.

H D Gangaraj, former president of KFCC says, “Many theatres that screen non-Kannada films try to avoid paying entertainment tax.”

Harish Gowda, Commissioner (Commercial Taxes) says there are “one or two theatres” evading tax.