LAHORE, Aug 4: The Punjab Excise and Taxation Department has withdrawn rebate on live performances at four private halls and one at Alhamra.

These halls have been paying only 20 per cent tax for the past few years against 65 per cent tax paid by the other private halls.

According to the Excise and Taxation Department officials, the rebate, which had “distorted” the system, had been withdrawn.

All the halls showing live performances, mainly music shows, will now pay the 65 per cent tax, which is budgeted on all types of entertainment. However, the tax on drama performance will remain 20 per cent as stipulated by law.

The producers of music shows, in the meanwhile, have cried foul play, saying “it is yet another attempt to strangulate the entertainment industry.”

“There is hardly any practical difference between music shows and drama,” says a producer. All dramas in the city halls contain at least five songs and dances, some have even more,” he argues.

The general perception is that this decision is the outcome of bias attitude against stage dances at the government level, and the Excise Department has followed suit. Since the district government cannot announce a cultural policy of its own, it has decided to do it through indirect means. Earlier, police was used for this purpose, and now it is the Excise Department’s turn to do the job.

Another producer claims that stage shows are by all means legal. However, he says, there is no law covering such performances, but moral scruples.

The Punjab government has yet to determine what is legal and what is not, but “the bureaucrats have proved themselves to be moral inspectors of nation,” he laments.