One Of The Major Demands Is To Include Cinema Theatre Employees In The Priority List For COVID-19 Vaccination, Therefore Theatres Can Be Reopened By Ensuring All Safety Protocols And A Financial Package To Aid Theatres Which Have Sustained Huge Losses To Reopen.
The Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK) has put ahead a set of calls for to the State authorities, together with the re-opening of all cinema theatres within the state with 4 day by day reveals, to avoid wasting the struggling sector. One of the opposite main calls for is for inclusion of cinema theatre staff within the precedence checklist for COVID-19 vaccination, in order that theatres might be reopened by guaranteeing all security protocols and a monetary package deal to assist theatres which have sustained big losses to reopen.
The State authorities had in January determined to waive leisure tax from January to March. The fastened electrical energy fees had been additionally lowered by 50% for the ten month interval when the theatres remained shut in the course of the first wave of COVID-19. The FEUOK has now demanded that the leisure tax, which was introduced by the federal government to compensate the native our bodies for the losses incurred after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), be fully withdrawn.
Additionally, it has requested the federal government for a whole waiver of fastened electrical energy fees from March 2020 to December 2021, because the theatres had been working on low occupancy even in the course of the quick interval earlier than the second wave through which they had been allowed to operate. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) can also be trying to categorise the renovated theatres which have a number of screens as multiplexes, in order that larger fees might be levied. This additionally must be averted. The wonderful quantity imposed on some theatres which used up extra energy than the linked load, as a result of extra variety of reveals in the course of the pageant season, additionally must be waived, mentioned the FEUOK workplace bearers.
Many of the employees within the sector have been unable to pay their contributions to the welfare fund because of the losses sustained within the pandemic interval. The authorities ought to permit this excellent quantity to be paid as 12 instalments after the re-opening of the theatres. Since an quantity of ₹3 per ticket goes to the welfare fund, the exhibitors’ contributions to the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the Kerala State Film Development Corporation have to be waived.
The present license interval must be prolonged by atleast three extra months. Since the theatres have remained closed for a greater a part of the 12 months, the constructing tax, skilled tax and license charge, payable to the respective native physique, must be waived, mentioned the FEUOK workplace bearers.
