Entertainment set to become expensive

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, January 22

Watching a cinema, drama, concert, circus, entertainment shows or going to a carnival or fete would soon become a costly affair. The civic bodies would increase their tax on all these several times after the Delhi government decision to get the MCD and NDMC Amendment Bills passed in the Budget session of the Assembly.

The Bill says that the tax is absurdly low and the collection charges are much more than the actual tax. For instance, the tax of the civic bodies on cinema chows is Rs 7 per show which was fixed in 1957. This would now increase to Rs 1000 per screen per show in either the multiplex or the single screen cinema hall.

“If some of this is passed on to the cine-goers, the price of cinema ticket might go by a few rupees,” admitted a senior MCD official.

The decision of the Delhi government to introduce the two Bills – NDMC (Amendment) Bill, 2008 and the DMC (Amendment) Bill, 2008 in the Budget session of Assembly was made after a delegation of the MCD met Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on October 29 last year urging for a revision of the upper limit of tax.

The MCD leaders comprising of Mayor Arati Mehra, Leader of the House Subhash Arya and Standing Committee Chairman Vijender Gupta had told Dikshit and her ministerial colleagues that the expenditure and manpower involved in collecting these taxed are much more than the actual collection.

The Bill, therefore amends the Fourth Schedule of the DMC Act which deals with the taxes on cinema and other mode of entertainment. The Minister in—charge Raj Kumar Chauhan says in the Bill that these rates have not been revised since 1857 when the Act was enacted. “As a result, with the considerable erosion in the value of money over time, these rates have turned absurdly low,” said the minister.

The government has not yet determined the money which the civic bodies would get after the taxes are increased in the next two months. The Bill, however says that taxes would be substantial and would accrue to the civic bodies.

(2008)