Ali Zafar & Several Other Musicians Write to Provincial Govt. to Reconsider Taxation on Live Shows

In the times when no real money is generated from the sales of the actual music, musicians pretty make much their entire livelihood off live shows. Even when the situation is pretty shocking, both for the individual musicians and the entertainment industry at large, the government of Punjab has discouraged live shows every now and then.

Earlier this year, Punjab assembly passed a resolution to ban concerts in educational institutions, which are pretty much the only concert venues, since there aren’t much open-theaters or concert venues in this country. This was overturned by the assembly upon constant protest by the musicians.

In addition to that, since last year, the government of Punjab has imposed 65%  tax on the live shows (both ticketed and non ticketed) which is obviously on the higher side and applicable on event’s expense or sales (whichever is higher). It should be interesting to note that this tax is no more than 20% in any state of the USA.

In an effort to reduce the tax, Ali Zafar along with other musicians like Ali Azmat, Haroon Rashid, Farhad Humayun, Faisal Baig, Ali Noor and Bilal Khan, have written a letter of reconsideration to Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation. The scanned copy of the letter ca be found below.