India's GST rollout while touted as a historic move, has also spelt trouble for the Tamil film industry. While as per the law, the GST levied on cinema is 28%, the Tamil Nadu government has levied an additional 30% tax, bringing up the total to 58%.
As a form of protest against the excess taxation, over 1000 theatres in Tamil Nadu have shut down and gone on an indefinite strike. The theatre owners' association has stated that they would only begin functioning again if the government engages in a dialogue with them and considers their points.
Coming forth in the support of the Association, superstar Rajinikanth took to Twitter last night and urged the government to consider their plea. He further added that considering that a lot of people’s livelihood depends on cinema, the government reconsider.
Rajinikanth joined the conversation after Kamal Haasan earlier in the day slammed the TN government for making filmmaking deliberately difficult.
In a statement released, the actor had said,
"Our neighbouring states like Kerala have totally desisted from levying any more state tax on cinema over and above GST. The film industry requested the CM of Kerala Mr Pinarayi Vijayan and he through his Finance Minister quickly announced that Kerala will not be levying any more taxes on the already beleaguered film business. Karnataka has gone even further to facilitate the well-being of the film Industry. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are also doing their best for their film industries.”While various prolific actors, filmmakers and technicians have voiced their opinions on the matters, the conversation between the Theatre associations and the government is at a deadlock. As a result of this double taxation, R Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi's 'Vikram Vedha', which was to release this Friday, has now been postponed.