Bollywood to go on strike on Feb 23

The Film Federation of India (FFI) has proposed a nationwide strike of the film industry on February 23, to protest against the Central Government’s proposal to levy service tax of nearly 10.3 percent on the film industry. The proposed tax would escalate the filmmaker’s costs considerably and so they have decided to go on a strike.

The film associations across the country had a meeting in Chennai last month to discuss how to protest the proposed tax. For now they have planned to go on a strike for one day but if it doesn’t work then they will go on an indefinite strike.

According to a circular sent by the convener of FFI’s Service Tax Committee Ravi Kottarakara Rao, the film industry is already subjected to a lot of taxation burden and the imposition of an additional service tax will only add to it.

The film industry will suffer losses due to the strike but the members of the industry have decided to support it as the implementation of the service tax will affect small as well as big budget films really badly.