Producers' association writes to Nirmala Sitharaman to abolish GST on film industry

The Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA) on Wednesday wrote a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, requesting her to abolish or "substantially reduce" GST on the film and entertainment industry to help revive the sector amid the pandemic. The association, in its letter addressed to the FM, requested Sitharaman to consider "the pain and agony" the industry is going through due to "extreme taxation and also GST being levied at 18 percent".

The IMPPA claimed that the GST (goods and services tax) is levied at an extremely high rate, especially when this is an industry where the government makes no investment but "takes away the lion's share in the income generated". "Therefore in such an industry, where the entire capital is being contributed by the entrepreneurs, and today at a stage where the industry has reached a dead end due to the pandemic, it has become necessary that new blood and strength be pumped into the industry... abolishing GST and all other taxes as a one-time measure to revive the industry," the letter read.

The association, which has nearly 6,000 members, said the government has given "massive tax exemption and subsidy" to numerous multiplexes and exhibition outlets, which solely depend on the sale of tickets and struggled during the closure of cinema halls due to the pandemic. "It is a business which solely runs on the income generated by sale of tickets, which also gets sold only if the film appeals to the public enough to inspire them to pay money and buy tickets.”