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Friday, September 5, 2008

Court to the rescue : Haryana Govt decides to remove mother of all absurdities

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Can we have a wee bit break from the pay commission, ok, thanks...

The State of Haryana, like most of the States, offers entertainment tax exemption to defence personnel. Servicemen and women simply have to pay the price of admission without the entertainment tax in cinemas and multiplexes which leads to a 30% discount.

Haryana Govt however had a funny law in this regard. In Haryana, in order to avail this exemption, defence personnel had to undertake the following :-

a) Produce Identity Card at the ticket counter

b) Submit a certificate signed by a JCO or above at the ticket counter, and, hold your breath,

c) Watch the movie in full military uniform to prove your identity.

Yes you saw it right, one was expected to go to the movies in military gear in order to avail a discount of a few rupees.

We challenged the said stipulation of wearing uniform in the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court on the ground that it was absurd, arbitrary and made the entire scheme redundant and impractical since military rules anyway do not allow defence personnel to visit cinema halls in uniform. The Petitioner was a young lady officer from the JAG Branch.

Thankfully, the Haryana Govt today informed the Court that they had decided to delete and remove the stipulation of wearing uniform from their rules thus ending a long drawn battle with absurdity. Who would have thought…?

The idea behind this is also to educate the men and women in uniform that you are entitled to avail entertainment tax exemption in all cinemas and multiplexes in most of the States. While Rules in certain States provide the submission of a simple certificate at the ticket counter, Delhi has further simplified it and dispensed with red-tapism - there you just need to show your identity card at the counter to avail the discount. But the flip side is that in Delhi, Commissioned Officers are not authorized this exemption whereas in other States, all ranks are entitled. In case of infringement of this law, please promptly report the violation to the local excise and taxation authorities.


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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

@ navdeep...

dear sir u r doing a gr8 job..

through u may i request all armed forces people to not to respond to bloggers who on the web sites hurt our sentiments or write remarks against the armed forces..off late on certain websites i found..some of us strongly fighting/contending to prove that armed forces r doing a gr8 job...well "actions spk louder than words..and second thing is elephants dont change their path when...."..i find keeping to the true nature of soldiers we dont give up and they commit us to say something and then use the same words to put us down on the name of morality or quality of offrs etc....i feel we should avoid this trap by certain bloggers...in the end..
HAVE FAITH...

Anonymous said...

The Damage these clowns are doing is repairable. Pakistan have tried again and again but couldn't inflict any dent on us. This stupid exercise on the name of CPC has done damage which is humungus. 5th CPC created friction amongst branches, the wounds are still bleeding and now this clown, 6th CPC creates a rift amongst various ranks which may never fill. May God bless them with some wisdom.

Anonymous said...

The Damage these clowns are doing is irrepairable. Pakistan have tried again and again but couldn't inflict any dent on us. This stupid exercise on the name of CPC has done damage which is humungus. 5th CPC created friction amongst branches, the wounds are still bleeding and now this clown, 6th CPC creates a rift amongst various ranks which may never fill. May God bless them with some wisdom.

Punjab said...

well.. i card is ok but what is this certificate to be signed by no less JCO. What if we go on leave and don't have anyone signing our certificates? i haven't seen these certificates in any multiplex hall in gurgaon nor in chandigarh. Is ur family authorised for this discount? Delhi govt has played its own game of not providing this benefit to service offrs. We need to fight it all. We have lost enough with CPC but we shouldn't let other things go by. I have never taken any discounts like this in my 10 yrs of service. It was a great reminder to all but it still left few important questions unanswered which gives u the confidence of asking for such discounts at the movie hall counter.Can the site owner dwell on it?

Anonymous said...

are the exservicemen allowed this benefit

Navdeep / Maj Navdeep Singh said...

No this is not available to veterans

Anonymous said...

Sir,
Can you please intimate the list of states/ UT's where the said facility of exemptio from entertainment tax is available fordefence personnel and is it also extended to their dependents?
Regars,
Praveer

Anonymous said...

Seems reasonable to me that commissioned officers are not exempt. After all... certain standards must be maintained, and an officer should not need to claim a discount on his movie ticket!

Unknown said...

dear sir could somebody educate us regarding the exemption available in which all states. rest regarding this maintainnig of standards argument does not have much sense. then if that be the case slowly and slowly one should think of giving up privileges such as csd, rations, priority in various institutions, etc, etc . lets be practical and if some body is not giving us what is authorised then pl demand and get it.
kulbir