The Assam Assembly has passed the Assam Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to give a fillip to the local film industry by reducing the service charge of cinema tickets.
However, the state government has raised the entertainment tax on cinema tickets by up to ten percentile points.
Key Features of Bill
- Proposes to fix the service charge at a maximum of Rs 12 per ticket, which is as high as Rs 40 at present.
- Raised the government tax to 30 per cent on service charge from the earlier 20 per cent.
- Besides, a cess of 1 Rupee will be levied on each ticket for creating a welfare fund for film and theatre sectors.
- Government also proposed to increase the entertainment tax to 20% from 15% at present for entry charges ranging between Rs 5 and Rs 20 per ticket.