Two moviegoers in Hyderabad were awarded Rs 12.81 lakh (about $200,000) from a local theater. Why? After a three-year court struggle, the city theater was ordered to refund the couple Rs 11.74 plus 18% interest for each ticket they were overcharged for.
Santhosh Sanjay and Sandeep Kumar took Miraj Entertainment Limited, the company responsible for the Shalini Shivani theaters near the Chaitanyapuri metro station, to court after the company allegedly overcharged them for tickets.
It was reported by TOI that two Hyderabad residents went to NAA with a complaint claiming that the theater raised ticket prices after GST was reduced from 18% to 12%. The theater charged an extra Rs 11.74 for an executive ticket and Rs 16.06 for a gold ticket.
Unfortunately, audiences did not reap the benefits that Miraj Entertainment had promised them. They said they paid out 49.5% of ticket sales to wholesalers and kept the other 50%, totaling 5.33 lakh, for themselves.
Miraj Entertainment Ltd, the theater's operator, was instructed by the NAA to pay Rs 12.87 into the consumer welfare fund of both the Centre and Telangana for failing to lower GST. After determining the total to be 12.81 lakh, the NAA instructed the theater's management to deposit 6.4 lakh into the Central Consumer Welfare Fund and 6.41 into the Telangana State Consumer Welfare Fund.
The NAA is the legal mechanism established by the GST law to prevent undue profiteering by registered suppliers. The primary responsibility of the Authority is to guarantee that consumers reap the full benefits of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate reductions implemented by the GST Council and of the Input Tax Credit.
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