KARACHI: The Sindh government has issued a notice to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to recover entertainment tax, in millions of rupees, from the city zoo and the Safari Park, sources at the excise and taxation department said.

They added that a large number of people visited the two places every day to enjoy recreational facilities provided by the KMC.

The deputy director (entertainment tax) of the excise and taxation department, Shabana Baluch, said the tax had never been paid since the establishment of the Safari Park in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and the Karachi Zoological Gardens.

She said estimated tax dues from both facilities were around Rs44 million per annum.

She said the annual tax dues of the KMC, which had privatised recreational facilities at the two places to contractors, exceeded the entire collection of entertainment duty of the department, which was a meagre Rs32m.

Ms Baluch said notices had also been issued to owners of 17 cinema houses doing good business these days.

Entertainment tax on cinema tickets was suspended in 2000 by the then governor in view of poor business conditions of the film industry, she added.

Since the business situation of cinema houses had improved a lot, the department decided to recover entertainment tax that had never been abolished but suspended, the officer added.

The excise and taxation department put up the case with the chief minister requesting him to repeal the suspension order as the cinema industry had improved a lot since the year 2000.

The entertainment duty rates for cinemas were revised in the year 2000 to Rs2,000 on all tickets sold for AC class per day, Rs1,000 for the upper class and Rs500 for the ordinary class per day.

In reply to a question, Ms Baluch said the cantonment boards were also charging entertainment duty on modern movie houses doing good business in their areas.

She said the Sindh government had its claim on the revenue from entertainment duty collected from cinemas in cantonment areas also. The issue would be raised with high-ups of the cantonment boards by the Sindh government, she added.

According to the officer, a major defaulter of entertainment duty is the KMC.

She said private water parks and fun lands regularly paid entertainment tax and their sales were checked by the excise and taxation officers.

The rate of duty for water parks is 25pc of the entry tickets while organisers of musical programmes and dramas have to pay 10pc of the entry tickets and 5pc of sales for sports matches, according to her.

Under the law, owners of new parks have to inform the excise and taxation department about the start of a business within 29 days and are required to get approval of the entry rates from the excise secretary.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2016