NEW DELHI, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Theatre owners association in southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu Thursday called off strike following local government's assurance that it would form a committee to study the issue of new taxation, officials said.
According to president of theatre owners association Abirami Ramanathan, screening of movies would resume from Friday.
"The government has told us that it will form a committee with eight people from our (theatre owners) side and eight people from the government's side, which will discuss whether there should be a corporation tax at all, and if so, how much," Ramanathan said. "Our demand is that the local administration tax be removed."
Theatre owners suspended movie screenings on Monday to protest the additional tax levied by local government after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into effect across India. More than 1,000 movie theatres in the state went on an indefinite strike against the new tax structure on tickets.
Theatre owners say state tax of 30 percent on tickets in addition to the GST of 28 percent will deter cinema-goers from visiting theatres and encourage piracy.
Reports said on Friday the cinema lovers would have to purchase tickets as per new prices.
Theatre owners association Wednesday said they incurred a loss of around 3 million U.S. dollars per day due to the strike and had warned it could affect the livelihoods of nearly one million people associated with the industry.
