IT seeks transfer Telugu actors money from TN

A decade ago, Telugu film industry shifted its operations from Chennai to Hyderabad, but many artists continued their I-T assessment in Chennai. State Income-Tax department has requested its Tamil Nadu counterpart to transfer the accounts of many of the Tollywood celebrities. This include accounts of top stars like Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh and Mohan Babu. “More than 32 film artistes have their Income-Tax assessment in Chennai. Two years ago, we had asked them to transfer all the accounts to Hyderabad. But they are yet to respond on that,” said a senior I-T official.

“I-T officials in Tamil Nadu are more friendly towards taxpayers than in this state. This is the reason that many artistes continued their accounts in Chennai,” said a film distributor. The two-year-old decision by the state I-T wing to take back all these accounts to the state has taken momentum with increasing competition between the state circles. “We decided to bring back all these to the state, so that we get more income,” said a top I-T official.