Guru to get tax exemption in UP

Acceding to the request of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-owned Ad labs, the UP government has decided to exempt the movie Guru, starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, from the entertainment tax.

Though the finance and entertainment tax departments have opposed the idea, the proposal is likely to be endorsed by the state cabinet meeting in the next few days. The exemption will cost the state exchequer over Rs 1 crore.

Guru will be the 44th feature film to be granted tax exemption by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government. Of the 44, 12 films included either Amitabh Bachchan or his son Abhishek. Ever since the Samajwadi Party-led government came to power in UP in August 2003, all the films starring Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan have been exempted from the tax by the state government.

Last January, the state government, on the recommendation of UP Development Council Chairman Amar Singh, had announced the tax exemption for the feature film 'Babul', starring Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malani.

This exemption had cost the exchequer of Rs 50 Lakh. The finance department sources said the Mani Ratnam directed feature film Guru does not confirm to any of the criterion framed under the policy for granting tax exemption to the feature films.

The policy provides for the tax relief to those films which promote the cause of film and tourism industry in UP, and 75 per cent shooting of the film should have been done within the geographical boundary of UP.

Sources said the committee constituted for the purpose by the government had given the adverse report, yet Guru will be given the tax exemption.

The state government, in October 2006, had also exempted 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai' from the entertainment tax for three months. Maharashtra and Delhi had also announced similar tax relief for the feature film.