Indore: The commercial tax department has decided to impose 20% entertainment tax on cable operators.

Piqued with the decision, the cable operators are planning to vehemently oppose the move.

From April 2011, the commercial tax department had imposed a 20% entertainment tax on the cable operators. Till then, the operators having business of Rs 5 lakh per annum were exempted from the tax and required to pay only Rs 20 per connection.

The three multi system operators functioning in the city had moved the Jabalpur High Court. But recently the single bench delivered a favourable decision for the department which is planning to recover its outstanding dues.

Vice-president MP Cable Operators Association Arun Dubey alleged the decision was nothing but a conspiracy to promote DTH operators.

“The entertainment tax would make the cable connection costlier, which would drive customers towards DTH operators,” alleged Dubey.

He claimed there were 457 cable operators in the city having around 1.2 lakh connections.

The association functionary claimed that states like Rajasthan and Gujarat have done away with the entertainment tax already. Dubey said that financial burden would be immense once the commercial tax department would start recovering dues dating back to April 2011.

Quizzed what would they do now, Dubey cable operators would hand a memorandum to the commissioner commercial tax on Thursday and future strategy would be devised afterwards. He said he would wait for the decision.