The Centre will ask the state governments to cap entertainment tax at 45 per cent, besides appointing separate nodal officers for checking piracy, implementing the Cable Act and ensuring single-window clearance for film shootings.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the lower entertainment tax would, in fact, bring in more revenue for the state governments.
A meeting of all state information and finance ministers would be called soon to discuss the economics of this proposal, he said.
"We have decided to ask the state governments to cap the entertainment tax at 45 per cent, down from the present ceiling of 60 per cent," he said, after the state information ministers' meeting in Delhi.
According to Prasad, since this was a state subject the Centre could only make a suggestion and it was up to the states to implement them.
The minister said while the Bihar government charged 110 per cent entertainment tax, it was much less in West Bengal at 30 per cent, in Uttar Pradesh at 60 per cent and in Tamil Nadu at 25 per cent.
Besides, states like Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab had a tax rate of 50 per cent each.
Prasad said his ministry had formed a sub-committee to give recommendations on all the implications of computerisation of film ticketing.
He added that this has already been implemented by several states on an experimental basis.
On the issue of piracy, the minister said the centre had decided to ensure proper enforcement of anti-piracy measures, sensitise the police on it and appoint an anti-piracy nodal officer in each state for the purpose.
Besides, to ensure single-window clearance for shootings of foreign as well as Indian films, nodal officers would be appointed in the states, Prasad said.
He said a nodal officer would be appointed to ensure that the the Cable Act was implemented.
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