Resolve Long Standing Film Royalty Issue Says Ismail

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Caretaker Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said a total of RM152 million was allocated to Finas under Budget 2023 to drive the development of the film industry.KUALA LUMPUR: Ismail Sabri Yaakob wants the issue of royalty for those involved in the film industry to be reviewed.
The caretaker prime minister said the matter was previously discussed when he was domestic trade and consumer affairs minister.
In fact, he said, at the time, the Copyright Act had just been amended to provide royalty to singers and composers.
“I hope the matter will be reviewed in the interests of actors, producers, directors and those involved in filming.
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“InsyaAllah. As the prime minister, I may not have time to do it myself, but I have already laid the foundation, maybe Tan Sri Annuar Musa himself will look into the matter,” he said, referring to the communications and multimedia minister.
He said this in his speech when closing the Keluarga Malaysia Creative Community Exploration Programme (Ekspresi@Finas) here.
Ismail said based on the statistics department’s report in 2019, the film industry contributed 1.9%, or RM29.4 billion, to the gross domestic product and generated 216,811 job opportunities.
However, the industry, which encompasses the production, distribution and screening of films, experienced losses amounting to more than RM10 billion since March 18, 2020 due to the implementation of the movement control order to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
“From the total, the cinema screening industry lost a gross collection of RM1.08 billion in 2019 to RM138.9 million in 2020 and RM28.9 million in 2021,” he said.
On the post-pandemic economic recovery process, Ismail said the impact of the government’s efforts to attract foreign investment could also be seen through Finas’ Film Production Incentive (FIMI) investment data amounting to RM129.7 million until last August, which exceeded the RM100 million target.
While for the domestic market, he said the success of the Mat Kilau movie, which recorded the highest box office collection of over RM90 million, showed the ability of local films to compete with international films that dominated 60% of the box office.
This, he said, was followed by the success of films such as Air Force The Movie and Abang Long Fadil 3, which also recorded collections exceeding RM25 million, which gave confidence to producers, distributors and exhibitors about the ability of local films to overcome the setback caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the government was aware that going forward, the economic environment was expected to be more challenging and various issues had been voiced by stakeholders such as copyright ownership, welfare of practitioners, production payment rates by broadcasters, entertainment duty exemption, tax incentives and so on.
“The government is always concerned about the issues raised and based on long-term planning, these issues will be studied and improved along with the industrial ecosystem,” he said.
He believed there was great potential for the country’s film industry to drive the economy domestically and internationally.
On Budget 2023 for the film industry, Ismail said a total of RM152 million was allocated to Finas to drive the development of the industry.
He said, this included an allocation of RM50 million for the National Creative Content Special Fund, an allocation of RM102 million for the Digital Content Fund and a tax deduction for contributions to the Film Community and National Film Development Fund under Finas.
In addition, an exemption from import duty and sales tax will be given on studio equipment and filming production and an 80% contribution by the government for the Social Security Organisation’s self-employed social security scheme for Finas’ artistes.
“However, all this will only be enjoyed if Budget 2023 is presented again and approved after the 15th general election. This means the government today needs to be re-elected to lead the country,” he said. - FMT

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