It Might Cost You Close To RM20 To Watch One Movie At The Cinema Once GST Kicks In
A night out at the cinema will soon upgrade from stress release to rare treat.
By Mei Mei Chu — 09 Dec 2014, 06:26 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
Not only will medical care cost more once GST is implemented, the price of watching movies at the cinema might also give you a heart attack
According to Cinema Online, tickets to any form of entertainment are subjected to an additional 25% tax as stipulated in the Entertainments Duty Act 1953
The Entertainments Duty Act 1953 of Malaysia states that admission to a place where any form of entertainment is held is subject to the Entertainments Duty. An additional 25% fee from the cost of per movie ticket at the cinema is chargeable and is to be paid to the tax collector, the Ministry of Finance, for whom the State government enforces and collects for.
According to our industry sources, the 25% tax was implemented only in late October 2011, before that, the tax ranged between 40% to 50% depending on the state.
As movie tickets are not subjected to the sales and services tax (SST), the fact that the 6% GST is set to replace the 10% to 16% SST does not affect movie tickets too
The new Goods and Services Tax is set at a fixed rate of 6% and will be implemented starting from 1 April 2015 onwards. The GST is set to replace the current Sales and Service Tax (SST) that is made up of - Sales Tax; between 5% to 10% and the Service Tax; that is 6%.
That means when GST take effect, movie tickets will face an additional 6% tax on top of the current 25% entertainment duty
With the new GST set to eliminate the SST, it sounds like a pretty good deal mathematically doesn't it? Wrong, because movie tickets are not subject to the SST anyway, only the Entertainment Duty, that's why the latter is so high. The GST will be a new addition chargeable to the movie goer with the current 25% Entertainments Duty.
In simple terms, you will be paying a total of 31% tax for a single movie ticket
With an additional 6% GST to pay on top of your 25% Entertainments Duty, this will bring your total tax paid to a whopping 31%, and this is just to buy a single movie ticket. Since most of us don't go to the cinema alone often, imagine if you went to watch a movie in pairs or with your family. How much in tax will you actually be forking out?
For instance, a RM14 ticket for a newly-released movie will soon be charged a total of RM4.35 in taxes, bringing the final price to a whopping RM18.35
Off-peak tickets are currently priced at an average of RM10. An additional 31% tax will bring the final total of RM13.10 per ticket.
Tickets for senior citizens, students, and the handicapped are priced at an average of RM8. The 31% tax will being the final total to RM10.50.
3D movies typically cost an additional RM5 on top of the normal ticket price. A newly-released 3D blockbuster movie would then cost about RM23.35, RM15.10 for off-peak timings or shows, and RM15.50 for senior citizens, students and the handicapped.
On the bright side, GST might not affect your popcorn and Coke as much since concession stands already charge a 6% sales tax
Some cinemas have factored in the sales tax for their concession snacks like popcorn, chips and soft drinks so that their combo sets can have nice rounded figures and some even clearly state on the receipt that there's a sales tax of 6% charged. With the GST also set at 6%, the implementation will neither make our wallets lighter, nor weigh it down.