The Andhra Pradesh government issued an order providing relief measures to the state’s film industry and movie theatres to support them recover the losses incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The state’s information and public relations department issued a press release on Tuesday to make the announcement.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, theatres across the world were shut down since the worldwide lockdown in March 2020.
The order mentioned that the representatives of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) had called Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in June 2020 and submitted a memorandum explaining the “difficult situations through which they are passing and requesting to extend reliefs to the film industry to keep them going on without further loss”.
Keeping that in view, the state government waived fixed electricity charges of the theatres and provided financial support to the stakeholders through an interest subvention scheme to restart their operations that will help the film industry and benefit the individuals belonging to the industry whose livelihoods were affected the most from it.
According to the statement, the government has waived off fixed electricity charges for the months of April, May and June 2020 and has also deferred payment of fixed electricity charges for the period of six months from July to December 2020 for all theatres including multiplexes as a part of the relief measures.
Recommended
The state government acknowledged that the film industry contributes to the state exchequer in the form of GST, besides providing livelihood to scores of people.
Further, the government said it would provide a 50% interest subvention subject to a maximum limit of 4.5% per annum for loans availed by cinema theatre owners from banks.
“The maximum loan amount upto which interest subvention will be given is Rs 10 lakh for A and B centres and Rs 5 lakh for C centres. The interest subvention will be applicable for a period of one year after the moratorium period of six months. This package is not applicable to multiplexes,” the statement said.