Local tax over and above GST not viable: Wonderla MD

Reeling from the stress of the pandemic, Bengaluru headquartered Wonderla Holidays that owns theme parks and resorts, is working on its expansion plans. However, its Chennai project in OMR has hit a roadblock with problems relating to local body entertainment taxes.

“We want to begin work on our Chennai park but there is a problem of local body entertainment tax which is a tax for entertainment like cinemas and amusement parks over and above the GST. That is not viable for us. We have approached the government to scrap that. If that isn’t scrapped then we will not go ahead with the project,” the company’s managing director Arun Chittilappily told DH.

He adds that if this issue is ironed out, the project will start in FY23. Chittilappily says that Wonderla planned on setting up the park at OMR in Chennai as 20% of footfall was from areas like Salem in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Wonderla Holidays is also working on their theme park in Bhubaneshwar in Odisha. “Our expansion had to take a back seat because of Covid. If there is no third wave, we will proceed with all these projects,” he said.

The company is looking at not only organic but also inorganic growth. With regard to acquisitions, he added that the company prefers acquiring operations of parks instead of all the assets that come with them.

“We received a request to consider acquiring the theme park operated by Adlabs and Nicco Parks, which is partially owned by the West Bengal government, under the insolvency and bankruptcy code. But the problem is that we are only interested in operating such parks instead of owning them,” he said.

Bandhan Employees’ Welfare Trust and Angshuman Ghosh, son of Bandhan Bank founder Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, together have bought a 25% stake in Nicco Parks & Resorts, which was taken to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the insolvency and bankruptcy code.

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