Mumbai, Oct 20: Owners of Mumbai's single screen cinemas called off their strike today after meeting Deputy Chief Minister Chaggan Bhujbal over the issue of entertainment tax.
At least a thousand theatres across Maharashtra have been on a strike since October 17.

They have been demanding a reduction in entertainment tax from the prevailing 55 per cent in Mumbai and 50 per cent in the rest of the state to 30 per cent.

Bhujbal held a meeting with representatives of theatre owners for nearly two hours today to break the logjam between the government and theatre owners.

Announcing the theatre owners' decision to withdraw the stir after the meeting with Bhujbal, producer Kiran Shantaram said, "the strike has been called off after the government agreed to scale down the entertainment tax by 10 per cent and assurance on looking into other demands".

The Deputy Chief Minister told reporters after the meeting that the government had agreed to ratify the entertainment tax for theatres from 55 per cent to 45 per cent in Mumbai and from 50 per cent to 40 per cent in other municipal corporations.

The government would also reduce entertainment tax by ten per cent in the A, B and C class municipal areas while maintaining 15 per cent in rest of the region, he said
Bhujbal said, "the theatre owners have been instructed to take the concessions by reducing the ticket prices".

Over 1,000 theatres all over the state had closed from October 17 pressing their long pending demands, including scaling down of entertainment tax and change in the current exit policy.

Bureau Report