Impact and Challenges of GST in India with Reference to Media & Entertainment Sector – An Insight

The biggest tax reform since independence i.e., Goods and Services Tax (GST) has now become a part of Indian economy from 1st July, 2017. It is a comprehensive indirect tax on manufactures, sales and consumption of goods and services; thereby subsuming almost all other indirect taxes that were in existence throughout India before its implementation and also eliminating the cascading effects thereby. GST was introduced just after demonetisation in November, 2016 and has changed the whole scenario of indirect tax system in India. It aims at boosting overall growth of Indian economy by integrating all indirect taxes into one. The media and entertainment (M&E) industry in India is one of the fastest growing sectors and has outperformed expectations in recent years. With the expansion of the economy, the sector has accelerated its growth. The sector spreads into big and small screens, media, events, exhibitions, amusement facilities and gaming zones, with various combinations of offline and online delivery systems. With the advent of GST, things have become relatively simpler for the entertainment industry as it is subjected to only one tax and permissible local body taxes. One of the major changes has been the subsuming of Entertainment Tax under GST. Earlier, prior to implementation of GST, the rate of Entertainment Tax for the film industry varied from state to state, ranging from 15% to 110%. Introduction of GST has stabilised the rate variance and provided a uniform market across the nation. In this study, we have also made an attempt to study the pre and post GST effects on different activities of the media and entertainment industry like exhibition of movies, food and beverages sold at movie halls, services rendered by artists and other technician, sponsorship and brand promotion and advertisement. Thus, this paper is an endeavour to understand the impact of GST on media and entertainment sector and aims at pointing out the challenges of the same under the present structure and provide some way outs to it.