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IT officials swoop on ...Satakarni filmmakers
Officials of the Income Tax Department on Tuesday swooped on the offices and other locations of the director, producer and an area distributor of Nandamuri Balakrishna starrer ‘Gautamiputra Satakarni’.
Hyderabad: Officials of the Income Tax Department on Tuesday swooped on the offices and other locations of the director, producer and an area distributor of Nandamuri Balakrishna starrer ‘Gautamiputra Satakarni’.
The simultaneous searches were conducted following reports that the producer, distributor and exhibitors had gained illegal benefits by exploiting the entertainment tax exemption granted for the movie.
According to sources, the searches were conducted at the offices and other locations of the movie director Krish, producer Rajiv Reddy and Nizam area distributor Sudhakar Reddy.
It may be recalled that a report was published in these columns on January 19 on how the exhibitors and producers got benefitted on account of tax exemption granted to the movie and how the consumers were taken for a ride.
The governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have exempted entertainment tax for the movie. Following this, the admission fee for the movie did not exceed 75 per cent of the existing notified rates of admission fee to each class of the theatre.
But the exhibitors in violation of the condition had been collecting the regular rates of admission fee from the movie goers without giving them the benefit of tax exemption.
Sources in the Commercial Tax Department told The Hans India that the exhibitors subsequently claimed tax exemption while filing returns, while pocketing the money collected.
About 1,200 theatres – small and big –in the two Telugu States are under the control of four big shots of the film industry.
The benefit of exemption of entertainment tax goes directly to the exhibitors, distributors and the producer, the sources said.
Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, V Anil Kumar told The Hans India that he was aware of the issue and that he had already written to the government to clarify on the rates of admission to be collected by the exhibitors.
“The instructions given in this regard are not clear. Anyway, the exhibitors should not collect entertainment tax from the movie-goers when the governments exempted the same”, he said.
