The southern state of Tamil Nadu announced a 30 per cent levy on movie tickets, in addition to the 28 per cent GST fee.

All 969 movie cinemas in the state will close from Monday in protest, M. Subramanian, president of the regional theatre owners association, told AFP.

“Because of this we will lose customers and it will encourage illegal downloads of movies,” he said. “We will continue the strike till this 30 per cent tax is removed.”

“That’s the risk you have when you don’t subsume all the taxes,” said Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader Indirect Tax, PwC India. “It defeats the purpose of one tax.”