MC seals two theatres for not paying taxes

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 16

The licence department of the Municipal Corporation (MC) on Monday sealed the Tagore and Mini Tagore theatres here for not paying the show and entertainment tax. 

MC officials said the owner had not paid the show and entertainment tax amounting to Rs 4 lakh since January 2016. As per the officials, the owners are required to pay Rs 2.77 lakh for the Tagore theatre and Rs 1.23 lakh for the Mini Tagore theatre in the form of taxes. 

The show tax to be paid by the theatres is Rs 22 per show and entertainment tax is 10 paise per ticket. 

The amount is as per the old charges. Now, the same has been revised for new theatres.

The officials said the MC had issued two notices to the owner in the previous financial year, but they failed to pay the amount.

MC Superintendent Sukhminder Singh Dicky said, “These two theatres have been running here for sevral years and they have not paid show and entertainment tax since January 2016. We had contacted the managers of the theatres many times and issued notices regarding the non-payment of the taxes.”

The sealing orders were issued by MC Joint Commissioner Ankur Mahendru. 

He said, “The owner of the Tagore and Mini Tagore theatres has not paid taxes to the civic body. We have also narrowed down the names of other theatres as they agreed to pay their pending amount. The sealing orders have been issued after sending proper notices. The theatres will be allowed to be run if they pay the amount.” 

The MC Joint Commissioner said sealing was carried out under Section 138 of the MC Act.