Film producer challenges 'discrimination' in entertainment tax

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to various states including Maharashtra on a petition which challenged exemptions granted by these states on entertainment tax granted to regional language films.
Film producer Sundeep Bedi of Bandit Queen, Maqboolfame filed a petition in the SC. He pointed out that certain states discriminated between regional films and non-regional films, particularly Hindi films when it came to levying entertainment tax.His counsel A M Singhvi informed a bench of Justices R M Lodha and M B Lokur that,’’ The discrimination forms a larger issue affecting the entire film industry despite the law being well-settled by the SC in an earlier case.’’
The state is empowered to impose, regulate and collect taxes on entertainment related services, such as, tax levied on the tickets, for admission to Cinema Theatres, plays and performing arts.
The petitioner’s lawyers Singhvi and Ameet Naik said that Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat have granted exemption in entertainment tax levied on regional language films but continue to impose ‘’exorbitant entertainment tax’’ on Hindi films in some cases as high as 70% of a ticket value.
The states’ move flouts previous orders of the SC, it said. The SC had barred classification only on the basis of language and held it to be arbitrary and unconstitutional in a case where Andhra Pradesh had granted exemptions to Telugu films only on the basis of language.