THE National Film Development Corporation (Finas) plans to hold talks with several other states on the reduction of entertainment fees as has been implemented in the Federal Territories.
Finas chief executive officer Datuk Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib said the matter was discussed in a recent meeting with local cinema operators, such as Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC), TGV Cinemas and Lotus Five Star (LFS).
"There were two issues discussed. The first was on reducing the entertainment tax on movie tickets," he said in a recent 'Berita Harian' report.
Azmir said the entertainment duty in Malaysia is currently set at 25 per cent.
"The cinema exhibitors had presented the statistics as well as their studies on this. They found that the entertainment tax in Malaysia is high compared with other countries.
"There are some countries that do not even have entertainment tax.
"Their hope was that Finas and the government would be able to help reduce the tax as it would help the country's film industry a lot.
"As announced by the prime minister during the tabling of the 2024 Budget last year, the Federal Territories has reduced its entertainment tax.
"We will meet with several other states such as Selangor, Penang and Johor to reach a consensus on reducing the entertainment tax," he added.
It was previously reported that the government had agreed to reduce entertainment tax for the Federal Territories from 25 per cent to a new rate to support the efforts of creative arts activists in promoting the local arts and culture sector.
Azmir did not deny that such a move would also mean a reduction in government revenue.
But it would attract more audiences to cinemas, contributing to a far higher revenue for the government, hence Finas' plan for a campaign.
"We have an idea to create initiatives like the 'Let's Go to the Cinema' campaign.
"Maybe there could be a day in a month for the campaign with promotions or discounts on ticket prices," he said.
Azmir added that Finas is working on getting the approval of relevant parties to help overcome the issue of reduced audiences in cinemas this year.
"One of the problems mentioned by cinema exhibitors was the decline in audiences, not only for local films but international ones as well.
"What we are talking about is to have more promotions.
"One of them will be in conjunction with the ongoing Merdeka month.
"We will collaborate with cinemas to promote local films so that audiences will return to cinemas."