TN film industry reps to meet chief minister over tax row

Members of the Tamil film fraternity will meet Chief Minister K Palaniswami today over the double taxation issue, a producers' body has said.

Film producers in the state, who met state minister S P Velumani yesterday, have decided not to release any new movies from October 6 due to the implementation of a 10 per cent local body tax in addition to the Goods and Service Tax.

After meeting municipal administration minister Velumani, the president of the Tamil Film Producers Council, Vishal Krishna, yesterday said the organisation had put forth the demands of scrapping the 10 per cent local body tax again before the authorities.

"Another round of meeting happened. We hope with our meeting with the chief minister (Palaniswami), our demands will be met with," he told reporters at the Secretariat.

Film industry representatives met the state government authorities over the issue last week as well.

Vishal, also an actor, expressed hope that there would be a positive outcome after the council's meeting with the government over the next couple of days.

Noted film distributor 'Tirupur' Subramanian had said the meeting with Velumani and government authorities was "satisfactory".

"We hope the issue will be sorted out before Deepawali festival," he added.

To a query, he had said the film industry members have sought an appointment to meet the chief minister today.

Tamil flicks of top actors normally release on Deepawali day in Tamil Nadu. "Mersal", starring popular actor Vijay, is one of the films expected to release on October 18, the day of the festival.