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Journalism of Courage
August 3: The Maharashtra government suffered revenue losses of Rs. 15.41 crore following exemptions in entertainment duty granted to nine Hindi films in violation of prescribed conditions during 1997-99.
Stating this, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the year ended on March 31, 1999 said the exemptions in entertainment duty were allowed despite non-fulfilment of the laid down criteria by the state government.
The state government, under the provisions of the Bombay Entertainment Duty Act, 1923, can by a general or special order, exempt any entertainment or class of entertainments from liability to pay entertainment duty.
The rules framed under the act require that exemption be granted to films which have been awarded the President’s gold medal or on recommendation made by an advisory committee appointed by the state government, provided it considers that the film fulfills criteria of educational, cultural or social purpose of high order.
The list of films exempted from entertainment duty during 1997-99 includes Border, Mrityudand, Pardes, Kalyug Ka Arjun, Bhai Bhai, Gulam-E-Mustafa, Dushman, Satya and Major Saab.
The producer of a film, exempted from the purview of the entertainment duty, is required to give an undertaking that he would pay an amount equivalent to the amount of the entertainment duty leviable on the exhibition of such film to the person or persons as most responsible for the educational, cultural or social contribution of such film as nominated by the advisory committee. The producer, as per the act, is also required to submit weekly return to the district collectors specifying particulars of payments made to the nominated persons with a copy thereof to the government, the CAG report said.
However, a scrutiny of records of the Cultural Affairs Department granting exemption to nine films revealed that in none of the cases the committee had nominated any person or persons responsible for the educational, cultural or social value of the film and weekly returns as prescribed, were not submitted by the producer to the district collectors, the CAG report says.
As the essential conditions were not fulfilled, the exemption orders declaring the films as tax free were required to be withdrawn under the rules, it said adding howevr, no such action was taken by the government.
The CAG report further states that the Cultural Affairs Department, when queried stated that the provisions in the rule were outdated and defective and that action would be taken to amend the rule in consultation with the Revenue and Forests Department.
But CAG said it did not receive the report of the action taken till November 1999.
