At the end of his Rajya Sabha term, Dasari Narayana Rao, who received the best actor Nandi award, urged the state government to exempt films from VAT.
"The Telugu film industry is going through a tough time. Except for one or two films, everyone is quoting huge numbers as collections, for the sake of publicity. And after watching all this, the government has been levying a lot of taxes on films," he said.
"Recently, the central government waived off the service tax on films, and I request the state government to waive off VAT as well. Even our neighbouring states - Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka - don't levy VAT on films," he said, on the dais.
An MoU was earlier signed to prevent piracy, and the state government was made a party to it.
Dasari's request in full public evoked the desired response from Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who said that the authorities concerned were looking into the issue, and that a decision will be taken soon. (INN)