Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; January 16, 2020)

Recently, several states declared Deepika Padukone’s Chhapaak, a film on acid attack survivors, taxfree, while UP did the same for Ajay Devgn’s Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, a film on Maratha warrior Tanhaji Malusare. Maharashtra is considering making both the films tax-free, as per Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, who said, “Earlier, the Revenue ministry used to take a decision on making a movie tax-free, but now the tax has been subsumed in the GST.” Since GST (Goods and Services Tax) came into effect, what exactly does a film’s tax-free status mean?

In December 2018, two GST slabs were announced for films — 18% for tickets above Rs 100, and 12% for tickets below Rs 100. This tax is divided between the state and central government (State GST and Central GST). When a state declares a film ‘tax-free’, now it exempts only half of the entertainment tax, which would be either 9% or 6%, as per the ticket price. For the multiplex audience, since there are hardly any tickets available below Rs 100, the default exemption would be 9%. Cinema hall owners say that declaring a film tax-free had a bigger impact in the pre-GST years, when every state had different entertainment tax and the state governments could exempt the whole amount. Now, a moviegoer still needs to pay Central GST even for tax-exempted films. With GST in play, now the tax-free status of a film means endorsement of a film by the state government, rather than any significant monetary benefit.