NO EXEMPTION TO CINE ARTISTES ON SERVICE TAX

OPEN LETTER TO THE FINANCE MINISTER OF INDIA

A few weeks ago the poor farmers of Tamil Nadu protested in the collectorates demanding that proper compensation may be paid to them in the wake of non-release of Cauvery water and failure of North East Monsoon.

Last year end Smt Shila Dixit the CM of Delhi NCP declared that  600 per month including the free items or subsidized items is enough for a family of four persons in Delhi. It is meant that  7200 is enough for a family of four in the whole year.

In the New Year another group of disgruntled who pretend to be poor and demanded that any Govt levy on their industry would stifle the growth. Not only that, they have even contacted secretaries of the finance dept for approaching you to exempt them from the service charges. The irony is that the service charges are payable by those individuals whose annual income exceeds  10 Lakh. In the words of Smt Shila Dixit the CM of Delhi NCP 138 familes can survive on the income of one individual of this industry.

Surprisingly, no political party including the Indian National Congress and the so called champions of the working class, CPI and CPM, the party of rural juntas BJP and the latest addition to the political party band wagon Aam Admi Parties has spoken any word on the strange demand that the film industry workers from producers to ordinary workers should be exempted from paying the service tax.

The civil society has not spoken a word of protest in any forum. The modern iconoclasts like Arundhati Roy, Brinda Karat, Medha Patkar are also conspicuously silent on the issue. There is an eerie silence by the intelligentsia and the intellectuals.

The concept of service tax is actually the CSR of the individual since the money involved is very meager, the Govt is collecting and investing in the developmental work. However, here is an exclusive group of workers who are patrons of five star hotels, week end parties, cruise parties, consumers of very costly products like cars costing more than  1 Crores and having houses at several cores, owning hotels, vast fertile farm lands, frequent foreign visits etc their life style in an eye sore of every Indian and heave a sigh of melancholy, refuse to pay the service tax.

The Govt support was once needed for film industry. Now the industry has come of age and they can even sustain a few states Govt in India. Even for the nationwide Kargil collection of funds, only a few of the film artistes liberally donated. Others still want to pickpocket whatever little money left in the pockets of the film fans by organizing special fund raisers. Ultimately they paid noting for the cause.

The film industry is suffering not because of imposition of service tax but because of the huge payments demanded by heroines and heroes not less than  1 Crore. Cleverly they included the poor workers who earn less that  10 Lakh per year. Other wise they may loose their employability.

Hence sympathetically consider the compensation to the farmers of delta area and other areas of Tamil Nadu. Also consider any civil section whose income is less that  1 Lakh. However, do not under any circumstance agree for the exemption of service tax to the film industry. Make it a law even if it is required, to impose service tax is payable by any section of the society including the film industry. Otherwise if you agree for exemption every section of the society would make such a strange demand that after all they are serving the society and no Govt should dare to impose any tax on them.

It is not only anti-democratic but also anti-national to refuse to pay the taxes and demand the Govt roll back the imposition. I hope the Govt would not budge an inch on this issue