Universal hero Kamal Haasan has said that he would be forced to quit films if the GST rate for the regional cinema is not slashed.

It is known that the Union govt. has finalized a uniform tax of 28 percent on films that release in India, irrespective of whether they belong to Hollywood, Bollywood or regional.

Several South filmmakers and actors have started crying foul over the hiked tax on film industry. Earlier, on average, regional films used to pay around 14 percent tax to the govt, so the new tax is almost double.

“We welcome GST and one India one tax but this steep hike in tax will ruin regional cinema. If I can’t afford the tax I’ll have to quit. I will not work for the government. What is this? Is this the East India Company?” said the 62-year-old actor-filmmaker.

“It is unfair to expect a regional film which gets a big release only in a single State to be charged tax on par with a Hindi or English movie that gets a countrywide release in several screens. Regional films, Hollywood films and Hindi films cannot be put on the same slab,” the actor said, speaking at a meeting organised by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce.

Kamal urged the union government to cut the GST rate to 12-15 per cent, at least in the case of regional films.