Budget 2011: CVD exemption cheers Indian film industry1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe Government from India announced exemption of countervailing duty (CVD) on jumbo rolls of cinematograph films of 400 feet and 1000 feet, a demand that the film industry has been making for long.
The full exemption from excise duty is expected to help boost the Indian film industry as print costs are estimated to shrink by five per cent.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his Budget proposal for 2011-12, told Parliament that the Indian film industry had represented that colour, unexposed jumbo rolls of cinematographic films are not manufacturered domestically. These rolls had to be imported.
Said noted filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt, “This is a good step on the part of the Finance Minister. We had been prevailing upon him that the duty should be waived off. The reduction of duty that amounted to 10 per cent of the cost will help the film industry and the nation fight the cause of piracy. Piracy used to take place as distributors could not make more prints because of the high roll costs. Now, with the exemption, distributors will come out with more prints that will help in curtailing piracy.”
