Venkaiah Naidu to take up with Jaitley GST tax rate for films

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu sought to allay Tamil film industry's apprehensions over GST and said he would lead a delegation of various industry bodies to address the issue of tax rates for films with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Naidu, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, stated this while assuring his Ministry's support to issues raised by the South Indian Film Chambers of Commerce (SIFCC) at a meeting with him here.

"I will take a high-level delegation from various film industry bodies... Will invite other Ministries including Commerce and Industries so that we all can arrive at a consensus," he said addressing SIFCC members.

Describing GST as a "revolutionery step" in taxation, Naidu said he would take up with Jaitely the issue of fixing different tax rates for domestic and foreign films based on their budgets. "With regard to the domestic and foreign films, there has to be different grades (for fixing rates).. I will take up your cause with the Finance Ministry as the rates are fixed by GST council," he said.

Earlier, SIFCC President L Suresh said regional films should be taxed at lowest rates as against Hindi or a foreign language film. Responding to the plea of South Indian Film Artistes Association Treasurer Karthi that the Ministry should allow opening up of small theatres, Naidu said he would discuss the issue with state governments as the matter involved availability of land. On the issue of piracy, he said it was a 'big setback' to the cinema industry.