The Madhya Pradesh government has put in abeyance the proposal by the previous government in the state, led by Shivraj Singh Chauhan, that empowered the local bodies to impose a tax of upto 20% on single-screen cinemas and multiplexes. The Bhopal Municipal Corporation had taken the lead in imposing the local tax of 5% to 15% but it has now been withdrawn.
A government official clarified that the local body tax had not been scrapped but none of the Municipal Corporations had imposed it.
The Bhopal cine trade had kept cinemas closed for a month when the local tax had been imposed by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation in addition to the GST, amounting to double taxation.