Plea on Balayya film shot down

The petitioner said that exempting the film from entertainment tax clearly was to do undue favour to the producer

A vacation bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday refused to permit a plea as lunch motion challenging the AP government’s decision to exempt TD MLA and actor N. Balakrishna starrer Telugu film Gautamiputra Satakarni from paying entertainment tax.

The bench, comprising Justice Challa Kodandaram and Justice G. Shyam Prasad, expressed disinclination to permit the plea as lunch motion when advocate P.V. Krishnaiah urged it to hear the plea by C.B. Adarsh Kumar, a practising advocate of the city, against the exemption in view of public interest involved.

Mr Krishnaiah said that the AP government issued a GO on January 9, 2017 exempting the film from the purview of entertainment tax without following the procedure prescribed under the AP Entertainments Tax Rules 1939 and provisions of the AP Entertainments Tax Act, 1939. This clearly was to do undue favour to the film producer at the cost of the public exchequer incurring loss to the state, he averred.

Reacting to the submissions, Justice Kodandaram said that the government was also empowered to recover the tax when it found that the exemption was unwarranted.

While stating that there was no urgency involved in the petition, for it to be taken up during the vacation, the bench told the petitioner to move the petition before the regular bench after Sankranti vacation.