Govt move on licence fees meets resistance

pune: the theatre community in the city has decided to strongly oppose the proposed five-time hike in performance licence and ticket selling licence fees proposed by the state government. according to government rules, the producer of a stage show is required to pay rs 50 as performance licence fee per show, and rs 100 per annum to get a licence for selling tickets.on september 19, the government issued a notification proposing to increase the licence fee from the present rs 50 per show to rs 250 per show, and the licence fee for selling tickets from rs 100 per annum to rs 100 per show. it has asked police commissioners and district collectors to call for suggestions and objections from the public and forward these to the government. mohan kulkarni, director of the prominent city-based event-management company manoranjan said the hike was too much. if manoranjan was organising 20 stage shows of various kinds every month, we were required to pay rs 1,000. now, we will have to pay rs 5,000 for the performance licence in addition to the rs 100 per show for the licence to sell tickets. this hefty hike will send the economics of the business haywire and delegations of producers and event-management agencies will be meeting cultural affairs minister ramkrishna more soon to request him to withdraw the hike. if required, we will even go on strike like cinema hall owners did a few days back, said a defiant bhalchandra panse, president of the pune drama producers' association. experimental theatre groups are more vociferous in their opposition as they will be hit hardest, operating as they do on very slender margins. said president of the theatre academy, prasad purandare, sarcastically it seems that the government wants to perform the final rights of marathi theatre, especially of experimental theatre, which is going through one of its worst phases currently. on the one hand the government blows its own trumpet by saying that it is the first state in the country which has abolished the entertainment tax on dramas, and on the other hand it increases the fees for performance licence, he says. it is indirectly trying to collect entertainment tax from us and this is nothing but hypocrisy, says mr purandare. well-known actor and director of experimental theatre, madhav vaze, calls it a shameless attempt by the state government to fill its empty coffers. i want to ask the government what return it gives to marathi drama for these fees and taxes it collects from us. the government should make a disctinction between orchestra and professional performances and experimental plays, he said. sunil mahajan, a member of the state censor board, however, wonders what the hue and cry is about. i don't understand why drama producers complain so much when they charge rs 80 for tickets from the public. producers of musical concerts and other stage shows charge upto rs 500 for tickets. drama producers don't make a noise when theatre managements increase their rent, star actors and actresses suddenly increase their remuneration, or newspapers increase their advertising rates, but they make a hue and cry when government increase its tax, he said.