Shatrughan Sinha 'unhappy' with film industry being ignored in Budget
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha is not pleased with the 2021 Union Budget, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. In an interview with Pinkvilla, the veteran actor claimed that though the Budget has covered almost all the sectors, it ignored the entertainment industry completely. For the unversed, the Union Budget 2021 was announced yesterday. Here are more details on this.
Sinha stated in the interview, "The film industry had been shut down. But they have not bothered about them (sic)." "The Centre has allowed theaters 100% occupancy but there is already a clash with the state that will decide on the occupancy, and just in case they allow only 50%, and God forbid if cases rise, we'll neither be here nor there," he added.
Recently, the central government allowed cinema halls and theaters to operate with full occupancy, and released a new set of SOPs (Stand Operating Procedures) to be followed in line with the COVID-19 rules. "Longer intermissions may be used to allow the audience seated in different rows of the auditorium to move in a staggered manner," the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's statement said.
The former chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification, Pahlaj Nihalani is also not satisfied with the Budget 2021-22. He stated, "The industry has suffered huge losses during the pandemic and I feel the GST [Goods and Services Tax] should be waived off completely for the next three years (sic)." He opined that electricity bills for the exhibition sector should also be waived off.
Yesterday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget, the first one amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Budget sets aside Rs. 35,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccines for the fiscal year 2021-22. The new Budget has six pillars - health and well-being; physical and financial capital and infrastructure; inclusive development; human capital; innovation and R&D; and minimum government and maximum governance.
