GST on Movie Tickets: The ₹100 Threshold Explained

GST on movie tickets turns on a single number: ₹100. A ticket priced at ₹100 or less is taxed at 5%, and a ticket priced above ₹100 is taxed at 18%. That split, which has been the shape of movie GST since the reform of 22 September 2025, explains why a matinee at a single-screen theatre and an evening show at a multiplex carry very different tax. This guide works through both rates with ₹ examples, then covers the three charges people confuse with the ticket's GST: local entertainment tax, the GST on popcorn and drinks, and the GST on an online booking app's convenience fee.

GST on movie tickets: the two rates

Admission to a cinema is a service, and the GST rate notifications tax it by reference to the price of the admission ticket. Since GST 2.0 there are two entries that matter to a moviegoer:

The theatre and the audience are in the same state, so the tax always appears as CGST plus SGST rather than IGST. Our explainer on CGST, SGST and IGST covers why. The threshold is applied to the ticket price, ordinarily read as the price before GST is added. A cinema pricing right at the boundary has to decide which side of ₹100 it sits on, and it is the operator's billing system, not the customer, that makes that call.

What GST 2.0 changed for cinema

Before the reform, movie tickets followed the same two-tier pattern, but the lower tier was 12%. The GST 2.0 rationalisation approved at the 56th GST Council Meeting folded most of the old 12% slab into 5%, and cinema tickets up to ₹100 moved with it. The 18% tier for tickets above ₹100 did not move. The full slab picture, including what happened to the 12% and 28% rates, is in our guide to GST rate slabs in 2026.

In practice the cut mostly helps single-screen theatres, smaller towns and discounted weekday shows, where tickets at or below ₹100 are still common. A typical multiplex ticket in a metro costs well over ₹100, so for most urban moviegoers the GST on a movie ticket is the same 18% it was before.

Worked examples: a ₹100 and a ₹250 ticket

GST is calculated on the ticket price and added on top. If you want the general method, including how to back GST out of an inclusive price, see how to calculate GST.

The threshold creates a jump. A ₹100 ticket costs ₹105 with GST; a ₹110 ticket costs ₹129.80, because the whole price is taxed at 18%, not just the ₹10 above the line. Under the old 12% rate the same ₹100 ticket would have cost ₹112, so the reform saves ₹7 on each ticket at that price.

For a family of four at a multiplex, four ₹250 tickets come to ₹1,000 plus ₹180 GST, or ₹1,180, before food, convenience fees and any local tax. Those extras are where the final bill tends to grow.

Local entertainment tax is separate

When GST arrived in 2017, it subsumed the entertainment tax that states used to charge on cinema. It did not remove every tax on entertainment. The Constitution still lets panchayats, municipalities and other local bodies tax entertainment within their area, and some of them do levy such a tax on cinema tickets.

Where a local body charges it, local entertainment tax is collected in addition to GST and usually appears as its own line on the ticket. Whether it applies, at what rate, and on which value, depends on the city or town and the rules of its local body. That is why the same film at the same price can cost slightly different amounts in two cities. It is not GST, it is not credited to the GST system, and it is not something the GST rate notifications control.

GST on popcorn and food at the multiplex

The popcorn is not taxed at the ticket rate. Food and beverages sold at a cinema's counter, as a separate purchase from the ticket, are treated as a restaurant service. That puts them on the lower 5% rate without input tax credit, the same entry that covers a standalone restaurant. The GST Council clarified this in 2023 after disputes over whether a multiplex snack counter should be taxed like a restaurant. Our restaurant GST rate explainer covers the 5% and 18% restaurant entries in full.

A ₹300 tub of popcorn with a drink therefore carries ₹15 GST (₹7.50 CGST plus ₹7.50 SGST), for ₹315 in total. The outcome changes when food is bundled with the ticket, for example a "movie plus combo" sold as one package at one price. A bundle like that is a composite supply, and its principal supply is the admission to the film. The whole package then takes the ticket's rate, which for a package priced above ₹100 is 18%. See composite versus mixed supply for how bundles are taxed.

GST on online booking and convenience fees

When you book through an app or a cinema's website, the ticket is still the cinema's supply and still taxed at 5% or 18% depending on its price. The convenience fee is different. It is the payment for the platform's own service of handling the booking, and it attracts 18% GST on the fee, whatever rate applies to the ticket.

Booking two ₹250 tickets online with a ₹30 convenience fee per ticket looks like this:

• Tickets: ₹500 plus 18% GST of ₹90 = ₹590.
• Convenience fees: ₹60 plus 18% GST of ₹10.80 = ₹70.80.
• Total: ₹660.80, of which ₹100.80 is GST.

Platforms do not always show the fee and its GST separately. Some show one "convenience fee" or "booking charge" figure inclusive of GST. The tax is in there either way. Two cheap tickets at ₹100 each would carry only ₹10 GST in total, but the convenience fee on them is still taxed at 18%, so on low-priced tickets the fee's GST can rival the ticket's.

SAC code for cinema services

Services are classified under SAC codes, and cinema admission falls under heading 9996, recreational, cultural and sporting services. The rate notification's entries for admission to the exhibition of cinematograph films, at ₹100 or less and above ₹100, sit within that heading. A theatre operator should confirm the exact six-digit code for its invoices against the current notification, and note that the snack counter is classified separately, as a restaurant service under heading 9963. Our SAC code list lists the headings.

Reading the tax on your ticket

A cinema that charges GST is a registered business and must print its GSTIN on the ticket or bill, along with the tax split into CGST and SGST. If the rate on a ₹100 ticket shows 18%, or a ticket above ₹100 shows 5%, or the GST lines do not add up to the stated rate, ask the box office. A GST line without a GSTIN is a reason for a closer look. Our guide is the GST on my bill real? shows how to check, and you can look up any GSTIN on the bill with a free GSTIN verification to see whether it is active and whose it is.

For businesses, a movie ticket rarely produces usable credit. A team outing is ordinarily treated as personal consumption or staff welfare, and credit on supplies used for personal consumption is blocked under the rules on blocked credits, so the GST on it is usually a cost, not a credit.

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