Goa loses over Rs 10 crore in revenue as BJP Govt goes easy on Sunburn, Supersonic, says LOGG Goa

Goa loses over Rs 10 crore in revenue as BJP Govt goes easy on Sunburn, Supersonic, says LOGG Goa

Monday, January 20, 2014: Panaji – Goa: “The State of Goa has lost over Rs 10 crore in additional revenue that could have been collected from music festivals like Sunburn and Supersonic and others held in the month of December 2013, had the government machinery been more vigilant and proactive in tax collection,” said Wilfred Dsouza, spokesperson for LOGG Goa.

According LOGG Goa (Lack of Good Governance in Goa) estimates, Sunburn organizers Percept Ltd had started selling passes online on various websites and portals about six months in advance for the December event. The selling of passes continued even though the government had not confirmed the event and permissions for the same were not procured. At the last minute, the government through a notification imposed and hiked the entertainment tax to 25 per cent, after which Sunburn suddenly dropped its estimates of crowd expected and became very secretive about the number of people who attended the event. Neither of the two major organizers  Percept and Viacom 18 has declared the number of guests who attended or the number of tickets sold.

According to the government notification, ticket sales of events attracting more than 2,000 persons-other than marriages, religious ceremonies and tiatrs – were to be monitored by the commercial taxes department. Sports events - indoor or outdoor –  will attract a 10% entertainment tax where the entry fee is Rs 500 or more, the government declared in the last week of December 2013.

According to media reports, the government had also announced in the March 2013 budget session, its intention of issuing pre-authenticated tickets to discotheques, boat cruises, river cruises, night clubs, dance performances, musical performances, theatrical performances including cultural programmes and ballets.  But it did not issue a separate notification to make this decision effective and the budgetary announcement remained just in thin air.

“Commercial taxes commissioner S G Korgaonkar as quoted in the Times of India had said that the previous season they had collected about Rs 1 crore as entertainment tax. This year with the 25 per cent hike, the government had expected a tax collection of about Rs 3-4 crore. Overall, the state has lost a huge amount of money due to the nonchalance of the government in revenue collection. Neither the government nor any other agency has declared the number of persons who attended the mega events or the tickets sold and revenue generated, though about a month has gone by,” asserted Dsouza on behalf of LOGG.