1. The present information has been filed by M/s Red Giant Movies (the 'Informant') under section 19(1) (a) of the Competition Act, 2002 (the 'Act') against the Secretary, Commercial Taxes & Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu (the 'Opposite Party No. 1') and the Commissioner, Commercial Taxes Department, Government of Tamil Nadu (the 'Opposite Party No. 2') alleging inter alia contravention of the provisions of section 4 of the Act.

2. Facts, as gathered from the information, may be briefly noted:

2.1 The Informant is a partnership firm and is engaged in full length movie production, distribution and other allied activities in the cinema industry in South India.

2.2 The Informant submits that since one of its partners is son of a former Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, with the change of regime in the State of Tamil Nadu, it has been sidelined by the present Government and more particularly, it has been repeatedly discriminated in grant of Entertainment Tax exemption for movies produced by it. It has been submitted that vide Tamil Nadu government order G.O. (Standing) No. 72 dated 22.07.2006 all movies having Tamil names were exempted from payment of Entertainment Tax whereas, in spite of having Tamil names, the movies produced by the Informant were not considered for tax exemption which caused huge revenue loss to it. Also, this created a situation whereby the Informant is unable to compete with other cinema production houses that were granted entertainment tax exemptions.

2.3 It is averred that the Opposite Party No. 2 is the authority under whom a committee, consisting of official and non-official members, is appointed by the Government of Tamil Nadu for preview of the movies to grant entertainment tax exemption and the committee is expected to view the movies and either recommend or reject the application seeking for entertainment tax exemption. The Opposite Party No. 1 is expected to issue a Government Order granting entertainment tax exemption for the movies having Tamil names as per the Government Orders, i) dated 22.07.2006, bearing G.O (Standing) No. 72 of the Commercial Taxes and Registration (C1) Department, ii) dated 21.07.2011 bearing G.O. No. 89 of the Commercial Taxes and Registration (C1) Department, iii) dated 03.01.2012 bearing G. O (Standing) No. 002 of the Commercial Taxes and Registration (C1) Department, and iv) dated 09.01.2012, bearing executive order No. sk-4/569/2012 of the Principal Secretary/ Commercial Taxes Commissioner.

2.4 It is averred that the entertainment tax exemption shall become applicable only from the date of passing of the Government order and not from the date of filing the application or from the date of release of the movie. Hence, if the tax exemption is delayed and given after the release of the movie, the movie distributors and the theatre owners have to pay the 30% entertainment tax until the date of passing of the government order granting exemption, and all taxes paid prior to the passing of the order cannot be reclaimed if exemption is granted for the movie subsequent to its screening.

2.5 It is, therefore, alleged that the Opposite Parties are in a dominant position with regard to the grant of entertainment tax exemption and the Informant and other similar enterprises are completely at the mercy of the Opposite Parties since they not only have to wait endlessly for the verdict of the Opposite Party No. 1 after having applied for exemption of tax but also forced to bear the brunt of demands for illegal gratification for issuing the exemption on most occasions.

2.6 It is also stated in the information that the Informant firm has been forced to move the Hon'ble High Court of Madras repeatedly to obtain tax exemption orders or to obtain expeditious orders from the government due to the biased attitude exhibited by the government towards it.

2.7 It is alleged that in view of this blatant discrimination shown towards the Informant, theatre owners are reluctant to purcha