SC : Overrules HC, no 'Entertainment Tax' on live musical concert/program receipts

SC reverses HC, grants exemption from ‘entertainment tax’ on gate receipts from live musical concert/program under Gujarat Entertainment Tax Act, 1977 (Act); Notes that Section 3A was brought in year 1998 whereby Schedule III specified list of entertainments outside ambit of charging Section 3 and first item of said Schedule read as, “All kinds of musical programmes including musical nights and opera”; Perusing speech of Finance Minister which led to incorporation of Section 3A, elucidates that, “all kinds of musical programmes, without any qualification, have been sought to be taken out of the purview of the charging section”; Consequently, HC’s denial of exemption to assessee on the ground that musical concert organized was not for purposes of promotion of educational, cultural or charitable purposes activities as required u/s 29 but for commercial purposes, is untenable when form of entertainment is included in Schedule III; Remarks that, “If a form of entertainment is not taxable under Section 3A of the Act we do not see how the requirement of exemption and necessity to conform to the requirement of exemption can apply to a non-taxable form of entertainment”  : SC