Composite entertainment tax relief applies when a cinema is lawfully prevented from exhibiting shows and collects no admission tax.

A cinema proprietor who had opted for composite entertainment tax relief under the statutory scheme was held entitled to proportionate relief for the period when the last show could not be exhibited under a lawful closure order. As no tickets were sold and no admission tax was collected during that involuntary closure, a rigid circular requiring closure for 30 days or more was treated as unreasonable on those facts. The operative principle is that tax cannot be demanded for a period in which the entertainment could not lawfully be carried on and the non-exhibition was compelled by authority, not voluntary.

---

---

Issues: Whether a cinema proprietor who had opted for composition of entertainment tax under section 6(3) could be denied rebate or proportionate relief for the period during which the last show was not exhibited pursuant to a lawful closure order and no admission tax was collected.

Analysis: The composition amount was fixed for the year under the statutory scheme, but the material fact remained that the cinema was compelled by a lawful order to discontinue the last show for the relevant period. During that period there was no exhibition, no sale of tickets, and consequently no collection of entertainment tax. A rigid application of the circular insisting on closure for 30 days or more was held to be irrational in the peculiar facts, because the proprietor could not be made to pay tax for a period when the entertainment itself could not lawfully be carried on. The Court treated the petitioner's non-exhibition of the show as involuntary compliance with a lawful administrative order rather than a voluntary closure attracting the restrictive condition in the circular.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to relief for the period during which the cinema remained closed for the last show, and the demand raised for that period was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where entertainment tax is compounded under a statutory scheme, no demand can be sustained for a period in which the cinema is lawfully prevented from exhibiting shows and no admission tax is collected, if the closure is involuntary and attributable to a lawful authority's order.

---