Finance minister Arun Jaitley accorded the Union Budget 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha. Bollywood has always been a great source of revenue for the government, the film industry is set to be known as some industry which provides jobs to the man. But this year it seems that the government forgot about Bollywood. The government has not eased out their taxes neither provided any aid to the industry. No wonder the keen members of Bollywood have expressed their displeasure towards this new budget.
Producer Mukesh Bhatt expressed his grief saying, “The Finance Minister did not even mention the film industry in his budget. They feel like we do not exist. They didn’t even touch upon piracy which is impacting us in such a big way and also in turn affecting the government’s revenue. We are saddened!”
Everyone has admitted being sad about Bollywood not being part of this year’s budget, Director Kunal Kohli pointed out to the members of Bollywood in Parliament. He said, “I feel members of the film fraternity, who are in the government, should be representing us and they need to put our point across to the government for them to look at. The film industry is in the limelight and is a great source of providing revenue and generating jobs.”
He also added, “The entertainment tax is not uniform in the country and varies from state to state. It needs to be uniform and should be lowered. Another concern is that the government does not offer subsidies to filmmakers to shoot in the country or state, much like how foreign countries do. The state of Uttar Pradesh offers subsidies, but it is not the same for the remaining states.”
Whereas Music director Vishal Dadlani expressed his immense feeling of gratitude towards the government for eradicating black money. In a series of tweets, he expressed his thoughts
Loving the political-funding reform brought by @narendramodi and @arunjaitley ! Will analyse in depth, but for now, MASSIVE congratulations!
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) February 1, 2017
Yes, you're right. Unless there is a provision for a PAN number alongside each donation. Until we read the notification, we don't know. https://t.co/CWNxIj9kRt
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) February 1, 2017
