PIL against tax exemption to Gautamiputra Satakarni

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition was filed in the High Court at Hyderabad challenging the action of the Telangana and AP state governments in granting exemption to the Telugu movie ‘Gautamiputra Satakarni’ from paying entertainment tax.

Senior counsel P V Krishniah, appearing for the petitioner C B Adarsh Kumar of Hyderabad, complained to the division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter, that both the governments did not follow due procedure in granting exemption, thereby violating the A.P. Entertainment Tax Act.

While the AP government completely exempted the producer from paying entertainment tax, the Telangana State government has constituted a committee to look into this issue and issued a G.O. granting such exemption.

He complained that the said G.O. is not available for the public in the Telangana State government portal.

He charged that the entire money collected from the viewers would be paid to the producer violating rules.

The Telangana government pleader countered saying no G.O. had been issued granting exemption and only a committee had been constituted to examine the issue.

The bench observed that the State governments are bound to collect the tax amounts notified under the rules and sought to know the grounds for not doing so.

It directed both the governments to file counter affidavits and adjourned the matter to next week.