Uttarakhand Cinema Federation has requested the State Finance Minister Prakash Pant to consider its proposal of increasing the price of ticket by at least Rs five to help them run the cinema houses. They said that the ticket being currently sold for Rs 3, the rate should be revised immediately. They invoked the instance of UP, saying that the owners of the non-AC cinema houses are now being allowed to collect Rs 8 per ticket to help them meet the maintenance charges while the price of the ticket for AC houses has been hiked to Rs 11.
They said that the revision is an imperative in view of the cinema industry incurring huge losses over the years, resulting in 48 of the 70 cinema houses being closed so far. Those which are still running are passing through a grim financial crisis, the owners told Pant. They further said that the cinema houses which are still operating would be shut down unless the government addresses their problems.
Pant said that under the GST regime, 17 types of taxes have got converted into a single tax, reducing thus the burden on those who are providing such services as running the cinema houses. The cinema house owners said that they are still being forced to pay the show taxes even after the GST rollout.