Officials told to explore ways for online sale of cinema tickets

Hyderabad:  Minister for Cinematography Talasani Srinivas Yadav has asked the officials to identify measures to be taken to implement online sale of cinema tickets after holding a meeting with the concerned within a week. 

He was reviewing online sale of cinema tickets with officials at his chambers in secretariat here on Thursday. The minister expressed concern over the common man not able to watch cinema along with family members in view of very high ticket prices and sale of eatables at theaters at exorbitant prices. He pointed out many private websites are charging a service fee of Rs 20 to Rs 40 putting burden on the audiences. 

It was mandatory to sell only 50 per cent of the total tickets online for each show, he said pointing out that the online sale was over and above the stipulated 50 per cent. 

The GST levied on each ticket is 18 per cent if the ticket price is below Rs 100 and 28 per cent if the cost is over Rs 100, he said the government’s online system will levy only 1.98 per cent of the GST.  He asked the officials to ensure that the canteens in film theatres display boards indicating prices of eatables to check sale of eatables at exorbitant prices.

Film development corporation Chairman Rammohana Rao, principal secretary for home Rajiv Trivedi, information commissioner Aravind Kumar, principal secretary for commercial taxes (revenue) Somesh Kumar, legal secretary Niranjan Rao, GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy and others took part in the meeting.