Budget 2012: Bollywood welcomes service tax exemption

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Bollywood film-makers have welcomed the government's decision to exempt the world's largest film industry from service tax in Budget 2012/13, meeting a long-standing demand.

This means there will be no more service tax levied on distribution or exhibition rights.

Following are some reactions from Bollywood:

KARAN JOHAR, film-maker "It is very gratifying to hear. I was just expressing my disappointment just yesterday that the industry was being ignored, but the news that we are on the negative list is very very good. This will help rationalise taxes, and eliminate the double taxation that the industry was being burdened with."

RAMESH SIPPY, producer "We met the finance minister a couple of weeks ago, and appealed to him to eliminate service tax. It looks like that appeal has been heard. I don't know the details, but I know that we will now have to pay only VAT and entertainment tax. The latter is a state subject and varies from state to state."

BOBBY BEDI, producer "The reduction of service across board will make a difference to the film industry and help rationalise tax."

SANJEEV LAMBA, CEO, Reliance Entertainment "With no service tax now on transfer of copyrights, and entertainment becoming a part of the negative list, this is a huge positive for the industry. There will, however, be an negative impact due to the general increase in service tax, excise and custom duties."