Pay 8% less in entertainment duty

You will have to pay 8% less for live concerts or events because the state government has cleared the disparity in the existing entertainment tax assessment procedure. However, you will have to pay more if the commercial events, such as limited-over cricket matches, are held in rural areas because
the government has started levying entertainment tax in mofussil areas as well.

This means, you will pay 10% more for tickets to the upcoming World Cup cricket and Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in Nagpur's Jamtha stadium. Nagpur will host around 10 IPL and World Cup matches this year.

You will also have to pay 10% more for entertainment events in hill cities, amusement parks and resorts that are not in the municipal limits.

The state cabinet on Tuesday did away with levying entertainment duty on the gross value of entry tickets. Henceforth, such duty would be assessed on the basis of the payment fixed by the proprietors or organisers. This method is already in place.

The new method will have a flat rate of 25% in municipal corporation areas in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, 20% for other municipal corporations and 15% for municipal council areas. Rural areas will pay 10% entertainment duty. Folk music and theatre activities, such as dramas, have been excluded.

A cabinet note for this proposal said that though the old system had a tax rate of 25% for both methods, the gross value payments would always be in the range of 33% — almost 8% more than the fixed payment method.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the new method would dispel disparity in the existing multiple assessments.

"The tax payment on gross value of entry tickets would be more than that of the payment fixed by the proprietors or organisers. So, we decided to adopt the second method, which will give some relief to people."

As the new method is expected to reduce tax collection by at least Rs 2 crore annually, the cabinet approved to bring in the rural areas under the entertainment tax ambit.

“The areas that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the municipal corporations or councils will also pay the entertainment duty of 10%,” said Chavan.

The note said the 10% levy in the rural areas area would generate more than Rs 50 lakh per year for the state.

This means that the IPL cricket matches and one-dayers to be played at Jamtha stadium or similar venues, which are in the gram panchayat regions, will cost more.

But Tests and domestic cricket matches will have no such duty across the state. “Now, we expect organisers to conduct more live concerts and cultural programmes,” said Chavan.