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HomeIndiaGujarat’s gung-ho about garba after 2-yr hiatus, but organisers, patrons peeved about...

Gujarat’s gung-ho about garba after 2-yr hiatus, but organisers, patrons peeved about 18% GST

BJP govt in state had defended the GST on tickets, saying it's been prevalent since 2017. While some organisers are passing on the tax to patrons, others are finding ways to dodge it.

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Mumbai: Navratri revellers in Gujarat will have to shell out more for garba tickets this year. As the state opens up for full-scale Navratri celebrations after two years of Covid-19, a row has erupted over the imposition of 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on garba tickets costing over Rs 500.

While the 18 per cent GST is payable under a 28 June, 2017 notification issued by the revenue department of the Union finance ministry, garba organisers, according to a report in The Indian Express, failed to implement it in the years that followed. Then came the pandemic, which curbed large-scale celebrations in 2020 and 2021.

The controversy reportedly surfaced when a prominent garba organiser in the state mentioned the GST rates applied to entry tickets on its website last month.

Organisers are now trying to work their way around the GST rule by pricing their least expensive tickets at Rs 499. But there’s a catch — patrons say these tickets are only for viewing and that people should be ready to shell out more if they want to participate.

“Usually, tickets are never less than Rs 500. They make seasonal passes for those who participate. The other pass is for viewers only,” Dhaval Kedia, a patron and former organiser who now conducts garba classes, told ThePrint, adding: “Around 99 per cent people opt for seasonal passes. There had been no garba event for the last two years and so there’s a craze this year.” 

Seasonal passes are tickets that allow people to access the event for all nine days of the festival, which began Monday and will go on till 5 October. 

Mithul Lathia, who organises big garba events under the name ‘G9 Event’ in Surat, has priced his tickets at Rs 500, Rs 1,200, and Rs 2,000 under different categories. 

“I don’t want to go against the government. I will have to pay GST, which I have to include in tickets as well,” Lathia, whose events usually host 20,000 people, told ThePrint.  

In Gujarat, garba celebrations are usually grand. They are not just social events — politicians use them for voter outreach.

The GST controversy comes months before the assembly elections in Gujarat. It has drawn flak from the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made its debut in state assembly polls in 2017, but failed to open its account. Both held protests last month demanding a rollback.

The Congress’s communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh called it “Garba Samapth Tax” in a tweet on 4 August. 

Gopal Italia, president of AAP’s Gujarat unit, shot off a letter to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to protest the tax. 

“People are attached to garba as it is a matter of our faith. Imposing [a] tax on people’s faith shows the BJP’s low-level mentality,” Italia told the media. “There was never a tax on worshipping our gods. We condemn this act by the BJP and demand immediate withdrawal of this tax.”  

The state BJP on its part hit back saying that this GST on cultural events has been in place since 2017.


Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal isn’t a one-man army in Gujarat. Here are 3 new AAP poster boys


Soaring ticket costs

Commercial garba events are hosted on a large scale in most major cities of Gujarat. According to organisers ThePrint spoke to, entry tickets generally start at over Rs 500. There are various categories of passes, such as VIP passes and VVIP passes — each of a different price range. 

Nehal Goodluck, who conducts garba classes in Surat, said the imposition of 18 per cent GST has sent seasonal ticket prices soaring to more than Rs 4,000 apiece. 

“In 2019, [ticket] prices that were around Rs 3,500 have easily gone up to over Rs 4,000. We are facing a lot of issues. And some are trying to keep it low but that’s rare,” he said.

Garba organiser Lathia, quoted earlier, said that the GST has sent his expenses up and that he’s been forced to price his ticket rates higher as a result.  

“For example, my ticket [costs] Rs 1,200 with GST. Without it, it would have been Rs 1,000. It’s a loss,” Lathia said, adding that his expenditure for the event was Rs 6.5 crore without GST. “I have to pay GST to the government. I had no option but to increase the prices of tickets.” 

Smaller organisers meanwhile are trying to find ways to circumvent the tax.   

Mohan Nair, who runs a non-profit called Disable Welfare Trust of India in Surat, holds a garba event in association with an organisation called KDM Zankar Navratri.

Ticket prices for the event start at Rs 499 for daily passes and go up. Seasonal passes cost up to Rs 3,200.

“There is competition and we manage our ticket rates accordingly,” Nair told ThePrint. “We have included the GST in tickets. We also pay our vendors high prices. So this gets squared off, more or less.”

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)


Also Read: As AAP threat looms, Gujarat BJP plans to use ‘aides’ of potential rebels to help prevent revolt


 

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