The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cinema tickets to cost more

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 05, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Cinema tickets to cost more

Special Correspondent

Cable TV subscription charges may also be revised soon

Bangalore: Be prepared to start paying more soon for entertainment of the popular kind. The recent Budget has seen to it.

Any entry fee or ticket for public amusement, priced at Rs. 50 and above is going to be taxed at 10 per cent; the Rs. 50 ticket will now be sold at Rs. 55.

The Government's reasoning is that while cinemas were being taxed, many other forms of amusements were not and the entertainment tax was the highest in cities such as Bangalore.

Now, entertainment events staged even outside the city limits will be taxed.

This may affect the clubs and resorts located just outside the city where entertainment is offered on weekends.

The Government will also impose fines on defaulters; ranging up to Rs. 15,000 in the case of repeat offenders.

Movie tickets in the better class of cinemas already cost nearly Rs. 100 and it is more in the new multiplexes that are part of many malls such as those on Hosur Road and Magrath Road.

While their managers say they will have to study the tax implication before deciding on increasing ticket prices, at least marginal increases areexpected.

Another tax that will affect even those watching movies in their drawing rooms is the 10 per cent tax to be levied on receipts of multi-system operators who beam signals of television channels to neighbourhood cable operators.

The multi-system operators pay licence fees to the broadcasters and an increase in these fees has often resulted in channels being blocked out for days together in recent years.

The multi-system operators say they will have no choice but to pass on the tax burden to the cable operators.

They, in turn, may have to increase the monthly subscription charges collected from those receiving cable TV programmes.

Cable operators charge different amounts, depending on whether one wants a basic assortment of a few regional channels or more.

The charge may go up to Rs. 250 a month (more in the upmarket areas) if one wants to watch BBC, CNN, National Geographic, Discovery and other overseas programmes as well.

The multi-system operators and cable operators are expected to make public the new charges soon.

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