Chennai : The Chennai Egmore XIII metropolitan magistrate court has directed the police to investigate a complaint against the secretary and principal secretary of the commercial taxes department and the production house of superstar Rajinikanth’s movie Kochadaiyaan, which hit silver screens across the globe in May this year, and register a case against them if any cognisable offence was made out in connection with an allegation of entertainment tax fraud.
In the petition, K.J. Saravanan, Madras high court advocate, submitted that as per TN G.O. No. 89, dated July 21, 2011, commercial taxes and registration (C1) department of the government exempted payment of entertainment taxes to film production companies in Tamil Nadu which make movies with exclusive Tamil names with certain conditions.
On August 12, 2014, the petitioner watched Tamil film Kochadaiyaan produced by Mediaone Global Entertainment Ltd, in a theatre in Chennai, purchasing a ticket for Rs 120/- He said the theatre management collected entertainment tax despite exemption granted by the commercial taxes department in an order dated May 12, 2014.
He came to know that Mediaone Global Entertainment Ltd had obtained a ‘U’ certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification on May 7, 2014 for another film “Kochadaiyaan – The Legend 3D with an English title”, for which tax exemption was not granted. As the theatre owner exhibited Kochadaiyaan – The Legend 3D (with English title), the production house made a huge profit illegally using the tax exemption obtained for the Tamil film.
Advocate Saravanan filed a petition with the DGP seeking action against the secretary, principal secretary of commercial taxes department for their failure to enforce and monitor the collection of entertainment tax. Since there was no response, he launched the petition before the XIII metropolitan magistrate court, Egmore in Chennai.
XIII MM judge S. Sivasubramanian found a prima facie evidence in the case and forwarded the petition to the inspector, Chennai – Triplicane police station, to register a case, investigate it and file a final report to the court.
MediaOne Global Entertainment is a South India’s fast upcoming Entertainment company with Prime focus in Exhibition (Theatres) along with Distribution and Production having office in Chennai and Bangalore and listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)
