The film industry may be reeling under the economic slowdown in the country, but the entertainment duty department of Nagpur district
collectorate has a different story to tell. As compared to the previous fiscal, the department has collected nearly one-fifth more revenue from different sources in the recently concluded financial year.
Interestingly, even the target revenue set by the state administration to be collected from the Nagpur district also went up by exactly 20% from year 2007-08 to 2008-09. Thus, the entertainment duty department collected Rs 8.77 crore against the target of Rs 8 crore in 2007-08. In 2008-09, the amount collected was Rs 10.51 crore against the target of Rs 9.6 crore.
In fact, it is an achievement of sorts that the collections of the department this year for the district alone is nearly 72.5% of the entire target set for all the six districts of Nagpur division. This division was given a target of Rs 14.50 crore. This was achieved despite 50% of the 10 posts of entertainment duty inspectors remaining vacant almost throughout 2008!
A general break-up of all entertainment duty shows that the biggest rise in collection took place in the taxes coming in from tickets sold at multiplexes and cinema halls in the city, and taxes collected from cable operators and service providers. These are the two chief sources of entertainment duty in any district.
Taxes from the sale of cinema tickets rose from Rs 3.95 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 5.88 crore in 2008-09, an increase of almost 50%. As for taxes paid by cable operators, they have increased from Rs 3.89 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 4.30 crore, which is slightly more than one-tenth.
On the other hand, due to closure of a game parlour and less number of public programmes taking place in the city, the collection under these two heads has gone down significantly. The collection from video parlours has also gone down as people seemed to be losing interest in them. Amusement and water parks have also met with the same fate.