The Andhra Pradesh government under chief minister YS Jagmohan Reddy has decided to end the black ticket menace. The government has introduced a new online platform from which the cine-goers will book their tickets at affordable rates.
The government has also fixed rates for the movies. Movie buffs will now book the movies at APFDC’s portal Your Screens. Andhra Pradesh Film Development Corporation’s managing director Vijay Reddy said, “This would help find out how many tickets were sold at what price, how much GST was collected, and other details, to check tax evasion.”
An official said, “Levying additional charges in the range of Rs 20-25 per ticket by other portals is ruled out.” A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the APFDC and the film exhibitor that on a daily basis the collection achieved by the portal for the movie will be credited to the exhibitor.
There will be no abolition of earlier agreements between the film exhibitors and online portals for the online sale of tickets. The government wants no monopoly on any web portal. Recently, the Competition Commission of India issued an order about an online web portal for the online sale of film tickets.
The government also said the cine-goers are free to choose any portal but if they opt for the APFDC they will book tickets at a much lower price than others. The official said, “The government has been working hard for some time to make movie tickets available to all. For this initiative, several meetings and discussions with many cine celebrities were conducted.”
Furthermore, he said, “The government has made it clear that it will implement transparent rates through this portal.” Speaking with the media APFDC MP Vijay Kumar Reddy said, “The theatre owners should implement only the prices fixed by the government. For that, we are making the online system available.”
