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The entertainment tax waiver given for Indian Premier League (IPL) matches held here recently has been criticised by the members of the state legislative Assembly.
The Assembly standing committee constituted on revenue matters in its report termed the AP government gesture as improper. "Giving tax exemption to Sunrisers IPL T-20 cricket matches at Hyderabad is not proper as all those matches are being held on highly commercial lines," observed the committee in its report tabled in the House on Tuesday.
According to the officials, the government on average had lost Rs 50 lakh per match in entertainment tax proceeds totalling over Rs 6 crore. In the middle of IPL matches, local media also highlighted reports of organisers allegedly collecting the ticket price inclusive of entertainment tax.
The committee has asked the government to reconsider its decision since it also deprives the local bodies of a huge revenues as their statutory share. It also observed that the rightful share in entertainment tax is not being paid to the local bodies.
'Govt fails to provide incentives to industries'
The Andhra Pradesh government is not keeping its word when it comes to giving monetary incentives as promised to new industries, according to data compiled by the Assembly standing committee.
There is a backlog of Rs 884.79 crore in various incentives committed by it for industrial units in addition to Rs 838.73 crore expected to be required to meet the demand for the current financial year. However, the government has allocated just Rs 415 crore in the annual Budget for this year. The government offers incentives in various forms, including investment subsidy, sales tax reimbursement, and electricity subsidy to encourage the industrial sector.
"The (Industry) department stated that it required an amount of Rs 2,025.52 crore, which includes requirement for both clearing the earlier backlogs and meeting the requirement for the current financial year. Whereas the allocation made was only Rs 540 crore," the committee said in its report.
The percentage wise allocation for the department over the total state Budget is 6.92 per cent for the current financial year while in the previous year, this was even less, according to the report.
