Tax on payment for admission to entertainment.

The entertainments tax shall be levied on each payment for admission to any entertainment at rates the maxima and minima whereof are specified in Schedule V:

Provided that in the case of cinematograph exhibition, the tax shall be calculated at the rates specified on each payment for admission after excluding from such payment the amount of the tax.

+[161-A.(1) Tax on Television exhibition.– (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 161, entertainment tax on cable television exhibition of any programme, including cable television network, shall be levied at the rate of ten per cent of the amount collected by a cable operator by way of contribution or subscription or installation or connection charges or any other charges collected in any manner whatsoever from a subscriber.

The section came into force on the 1st day of August 1976 vide Extraordinary Gazette No.342, dated 29th July, 1976.

Inserted by Act No. 9 of 1999, section 2, w.e.f 07-06-1999.

1. (2) The tax levied under this section shall be recoverable from the cable operator or any person providing cable television exhibition including cable television network; the tax liability shall not be passed on to the subscribers. Explanation. – For the purposes of this section, ---
   • (i) "antenna" means an apparatus which is able to receive television signals and which enables viewers to tune into transmissions including national or international satellite transmissions and is erected or installed for television exhibition;
   • (ii) "cable operator" means any person who provides cable service through a cable television network or otherwise controls or is responsible for the management and operation of a cable television network;
   • (iii) "cable service" means the transmission by cables of programmes including retransmission by cables of any broadcast television signals;
   • (iv) "cable television" means a cable service system organised for television exhibition of programmes which are viewed and heard on the television receiving set at a residential or non-residential place of a subscriber, by using a recorder or player or similar such apparatus on which pre-recorded video cassettes or discs or both are played or replayed;
   • (v) "cable television network" means any system consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, control and distribution equipment, designed to provide cable service for reception by multiple subscribers;
   • (vi) "programme" means any television broadcast, and includes --
   • (a) exhibition of films, features, dramas, advertisements and serials through video cassette recorders or video cassette players or discs or both;
   • (b) any audio or visual or audio-visual live performance or presentation; and the expression "programming service" shall be construed accordingly;
     • (vii) "subscriber" means a person who receives the signals of cable television network at a place indicated by him to the cable operator, without further transmitting it to any other person; and
     • (viii) "television exhibition" means an exhibition with the aid of any type of antenna with a cable network attached to it or cable television of a programme by means of transmission of television signals by wire, where subscribers’ television sets at residential or non-residential place are linked by metallic coaxial cable or optic fiber cable to a central system called the head-end].