Home Case Index All Cases VAT and Sales Tax VAT and Sales Tax + HC VAT and Sales Tax - 2020 (5) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2020 (5) TMI 607 - HC - VAT and Sales TaxLevy of Entertainment tax - online booking charges - Section 3(7) (c) of the Tamil Nadu Entertainment Tax Act, 1939 - whether the online ticketing charges quoted by the petitioners would have to be included in the ‘payment for admission’ liable to tax? - HELD THAT:- The petitioners levy an additional charge upon a consumer only when he opts for the online facility and these charges are necessary to defray the expenses incurred by the petitioner for offering this facility to a consumer. They point out that the online booking facility is hosted by third party service providers, such as, BookMyShow and other similar portals, which charge the petitioners a fee for hosting the booking portal. This has to be re-compensated and hence the online booking charge - Each will be rendered meaningless without the other and thus it is only the two events together that render the lottery composite and whole. Applied in the context of the present case, the distinction sought to be made by the petitioner between seating charge and online booking charge is clearly artificial and a distinction without a difference. By purchase of a ticket online the petitioner obtains only a single vested right – that of entry to the theatre and the amounts collected from the petitioners, the seating and booking charges are both relatable to the same entertainment event. A vehicle is part of the facilities offered and serves to improve or enhance the experience of the entertainment provided as compared to a squatter who could well walk into a drive-in theatre and sit on the seating provided to watch the film. The experience is rendered more pleasurable and the facility offered becomes intrinsic to the process of watching the film itself. Thus, the receipts from such additional facility/benefit should stand encompassed within the charge - Extending this reasoning to the case before me, the access to online booking again indisputably facilitates and smoothens the access to the entertainment. Though there are other modes of booking available, a customer, when he opts for the online booking facility makes a conscious choice as opposed to standing in a queue before a booking counter or deputing another who would purchase the tickets on his behalf. The facility of booking a ticket with the click of a button, seated in the comfort of one’s home is a conscious choice that comes at a cost and without doubt, enhances the experience of watching a film. The petitioners have also pointed out that the internet and online facility of booking could not have been envisaged in 1939 when the Tamil Nadu Entertainment Tax Act was enacted as a result that a charge in this regard will necessarily stand outside the ambit of ‘entertainment’ - the enactment provides for the State to levy a tax on entertainment and such an enactment is expected to be dynamic and take within its stride all progress in avenues of entertainment including facilities incidental and ancillary thereto, such as, in the present case, ticketing and booking facilities. Petition dismissed.
|