Mr Berlusconi often says that Italians are heavily taxed and that he will not add to the burden. So some months ago they announced that there would be a tax of 1 euro on every cinema ticket. In recent years he number of people going to the cinema has been increasing and we have been regularly adding to the number. So putting the ticket price up from 7.50 to 8.50 wasn’t welcomed by the cinema owners or by us. The extra euro was to go towards supporting the Italian film industry.
However, before the new increase became law there was a lot of protest from cultural bodies about the lack of government funding for spending on culture – buildings, art, music etc. In fact over recent years, and despite governments saying how important culture was to the tourist industry, the budget for the Ministry of Culture had been steadily cut. To show that it took culture seriously the Government decide to increase the budget. It did so by scrapping the idea of a tax on cinema tickets and instead put extra tax on petrol. A government spokesman said that he thought Italians would be happy to absorb the increase as it was in good cause.
So now getting into the cinemas stays as before but not the cost of getting there.