KARACHI: The provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh have totally abolished the Entertainment Tax for the new Cinemas as the new comers like Cinepax, which are growing rapidly in both the provinces, said Hashim Raza Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cinepax.
The government has abolished the Entertainment Tax in 2009 for the growth in Cinema Industry and since that time there is no Tax on small Cinemas in Punjab, while the Sindh government has fixed a tax at rate of Rs 2000 per day or Rs 60,000 per month, Hashim Raza said. Cinepax has no intention to invest in Balochistan and Khayber Pakhtoonkha (KPK) province.
Recently, Cinepax has nine Cinemas up to a capacity of 55 seats to 560 seats in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad while its plan is to fix around 50 screens in both the provinces.
After imposing Entertainment Tax of 65 per cent, most of the cinemas’ owners had shut down their businesses in Karachi and built multi-stories buildings or the shopping centers on the land of Cinemas.
After the decision of these two governments, some new investors are looking towards the setting up new cinemas in Karachi and Lahore and other parts of these provinces as the government had abolished the Entertainment Tax which had ruined the Cinema and film industries in Pakistan.
After this decision, it is learnt that the new investors have also jumped in to the film making industry and signed 43 new films which would be released in 2017-18.