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New
Delhi: The government on Friday gave its approval to financial
restructuring of Prasar Bharati, whereby the public broadcaster
will from this year have to ensure its operating expenses
other than salaries are met from revenue earnings.
The
government will meet all the expenses of Prasar Bharati towards
salary and salary-related expenses from its non-plan account
for five years from 2012-13 to 2016-17.
These
measures were a part of the proposal of the Information and
Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on financial restructuring
of Prasar Bharati. The proposal was based on the recommendations
of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Prasar Bharati constituted
under the chairmanship of the Home Minister, to examine various
issues pertaining to the functioning of Prasar Bharati. The
recommendations were given over a year earlier.
The
government will waive accumulated interest on loan-in-perpetuity,
interest on capital loan and penal interest thereon. Loan-in-perpetuity
and capital loans provided to Prasar Bharati will be converted
into grants-in-aid.
From
now on, any plan capital support by the government to Prasar
Bharati will be in the form of grants-in-aid and not in the
form of loans.
The
government has also agreed to waive accumulated arrears pertaining
to spectrum charges up to 31 March 2011 amounting to Rs 13.49
billion.
The property and assets will be transferred at book value
to Prasar Bharati according to the provisions of Section 16(a)
of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990. Normal accounting principles
will be followed to determine their future value.
The
Director General of Audit, Central Revenues (DGACR) will continue
to be the nodal auditor of Prasar Bharati and will be assisted
by qualified commercial audit staff for the audit of the annual
accounts.
Prasar
Bharati has been grappling with financial and human resource/employee
issues since its inception, which has adversely affected its
functioning as an autonomous organisation. In view of the
problems being faced by the public broadcaster, the GoM was
constituted on 7 March 2006. The GoM was again reconstituted
on 21 February 2011 which considered Prasar Bharati's future
revenue earning potential given its public service broadcasting
mandate, and made a number of recommendations for making it
financially viable and sustainable.
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