Cinema owners appeal government for aid as second covid wave hits business
Cinemas owners are seeking property tax waiver, reduction in fixed electricity charges, automatic licence renewal and 100% occupancy permits as soon as they reopen, in order to survive
NEW DELHI : Theatre owners who are facing closures yet again with the second wave of the pandemic hitting them hard, said they are in dire need of government aid that has evaded them all this while.
While Andhra Pradesh has already announced some measures and the Maharashtra chief minister also held a meeting with exhibitors earlier this month, cinemas said they are seeking property tax waiver, reduction in fixed electricity charges, automatic licence renewal and 100% occupancy permits as soon as they reopen, across the country, in order to survive.
“The idea is to realize that the sector is a source of livelihood for lakhs of people and while we’re all with the government in its bid to save lives, it is also a question of survival when many businesses are reaching a state of complete bankruptcy," said Akshaye Rathi, an independent film exhibitor and distributor with properties spread across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Rathi, along with several other cinema owners, including those of multiplexes and single screens, met Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to demand property tax waiver for the next three years, retrospective exemption of minimum demand charges on electricity for a year—an expense that cinemas are bearing even when theatres are shut—and for units to be fixed at industrial rates in the future, besides automatic renewal of licences for single screens for the next five years. More than 1,500 cinemas across India have shut shop over the past few months, a figure that is only expected to rise.
A single screen owner, however, pointed out on the condition of anonymity that the film exhibition sector has been requesting aid for the past many months, to no avail. “They see us as an elite medium because cinemas have come to be identified as abodes of the rich, not meant for the common man," the person said, referring to the practice of selling tickets at exorbitant rates, especially by multiplexes in metros, that adversely impacts the reputation of smaller businesses such as theirs.
Any aid to the film sector may also be seen as prioritizing entertainment over other key segments. “But they don’t realize how difficult it has been for us to get through this time, we’ve all cut salaries and can’t keep paying our staff when there is zero income," the person said.
In the run-up to the Union Budget earlier this year, Kailash Gupta, chief financial officer, INOX Leisure Ltd, had said that a reimbursement of wages for contractual workers and subsidies on salaries paid to the employees during the lockdown should be considered as a relief measure by the central and state governments. “Given the enticing line-up of content that we are looking at in CY21, critical government relief would help us attract more crowds to cinemas. Increased footfall would further churn the entire economic ecosystem of the film industry and would fetch more revenues and taxes for the exchequer," Gupta had added.
To be sure, trade experts and cinema owners point to the recent steps taken by the Andhra Pradesh government to help movie theatres. Among other measures, the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government that had received a memorandum from representatives of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce last June, has waived fixed electricity charges for all theatres, including multiplexes for April, May and June 2020 and deferred payment for the same for the period between July and December 2020. The state government has also said that it will provide 50% interest subvention subject to a maximum limit of 4.5% per annum for loans availed by cinema owners from banks.
“These are all state subjects, and things such as property tax, dependent on location and cinema can be extremely high while electricity charges can go up to Rs300,000-Rs400,000per month even when the cinema is shut," Kunal Sawhney, senior vice-president at Carnival Cinemas said, and added that the only hope for theatre owners can be that the lockdown doesn’t last as long this time because there are big-ticket films waiting for release on the other side that can draw audiences to theatres.
“We’re also hoping we’re allowed 100% seating capacity (once all cinemas reopen) that can be announced well in advance so that release and marketing plans can be made," Sawhney added.
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