The Kochi Corporation has decided to give a 25 per cent exemption on entertainment tax for the One-Day International between India and West Indies that will be held in Kochi on November 21.
The decision in this regard was taken at the all-party meet convened by mayor Tony Chammany here on Tuesday.
“Considering the severe financial crunch that the Kochi Corporation is facing, the all-party meet had initially decided not to approve the request of the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) for a tax exemption.
“However, later the leaders reached on a consensus to give a 25 per cent exemption on entertainment tax. In order to give the advantage of tax exemption to the general public, we will ask the Kerala Cricket Association to reduce the price of ordinary tickets for the match,” said Tony Chammany. For the match between India and Australia that was washed out in the rain in 2010, the KCA had given a sum of `64 lakh as entertainment tax to the Corporation.
However, the match was abandoned and KCA refunded the amount of tickets sold. They also asked the Corporation to repay the entertainment tax collected for the abandoned match.
Though the Corporation had convened a special council meeting to decide on the refund, it failed to reach a decision in this regard.
Following this, KCA again asked the Corporation to carry forward the amount that it already paid for the next match.
However that demand was not met and KCA again paid Rs 51 lakh as entertainment tax for the match between India and England that was played at Kaloor stadium in January.