17 February,2011 07:11 AM IST | | Urvashi Seth
Reason tax-struck hoteliers with Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, in the hope of convincing him to help repeal entertainment duty on live music
After Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat's unresponsiveness to city hoteliers' lament of mounting losses due to a revised entertainment tax, they decided to change track, and took the issue up with Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal yesterday.
They requested Bhujbal to help repeal the act before tourism in the city starts to wane on account of entertainment avenues in the state shutting down in the face of the heavy tax.
After Narayan Rane levied a tax on live music several places have done away with live music, leaving many entertainers jobless
The appeal of their rationale is based on the revenue the government earns from tourism, which in turn is entwined with entertainment.
Kamlesh Barot, president, Hotel and Restaurant Association - Western India (HRA-WI), said that a delegate of hoteliers and restaurateurs visited Bhujbal yesterday.
"We made a representation to the minister over how the new entertainment tax has forced us to rethink hosting live music performances.
Doing away with live music is slowly and steadily impacting visitors' footfalls, which in turn will affect tourism in the days to come," he said.
The meeting came after association members received a huge bill of entertainment tax from the collector, Barot said.
MiD DAY had earlier reported ('Making music at Mantaralya', January 13) about how a delegation of artists and hoteliers had met Thorat, requesting him to rollback the "unjust" tax.
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Then, Thorat had sought eight days to understand the matter. But the Minister hasn't found the time to get back on the issue, a musician said.
Almost seven months have passed since former revenue minister Narayan Rane amended the Entertainment Tax Act, 1923 to tax live music played in city restaurants.
Hoteliers and musicians have since embarked on a series of efforts for the revocation of the new tax structure, which has forced many establishments to do away with live music, and made many entertainers jobless.
"This tax is an added burden on us. We are forced to remove musicians as we cannot bear the costs.u00a0This is just an added service that brings in tourism to the state," said Barot.
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Readers of this paper will be aware of how MP Milind Deora, a music lover, had raised similar concerns in an interview with MiD DAY.
"Entertainment is a tourism booster (and) tourism is a major source of revenue for the government. There is an urgent need for regularisation," Deora had said.
Hotelier Meldan D'cunha, who is spearheading the Save Live Music campaign after the tax hit his business, expressed his angst with the tax.
"Since the rule was implemented, footfalls have reduced and our monthly income has suffered. On V-Day, we received so many enquiries about live bands.
But as we have discontinued the practice because of the tax, our weekend business has seen a huge loss," he said.
To show your support for the cause of musicians, you can go to Oxford bookstore at Churchgate and find out more about Don't Kill Live Music, a campaign against the tax on live music
