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Prasar Bharati has also appealed to the government that the tax
exemptions that were being extended to it earlier be restored. The
exemptions were withdrawn during the presentation of 2002-03 Union
Budget; a move that has not enthused the Prasar Bharati mandarins
much, anyway.
Coming back to the licence fee matter, according to Prasar Bharati
sources, the management committee of the corporation dwelled on
the issue yesterday. However, no consensus was arrived at as there
are "various pulls and pressure" working for and against the proposal.
At present, Prasar Bharati depends on the government for a major
part of revenue in the form of grant. To reduce this dependency,
it is searching for new areas for revenue generation.
The sources said that Prasar Bharati's yearly expenditure is estimated
to be around Rs 20 billion for the current year. However, the organisation
struggling to meet its annual earnings target, may end up with about
Rs 7 billion through advertisements and other revenues from radio
and TV. The gap between the expenditure and income would have to
be adjusted by the government, by way of grants and loans.
Prasar Bharati wants to impose a one-time licence fee on all TV
and radio sets sold in the country. Since the amount would become
part of the cost of the goods purchased, the manufacturers' lobby
is resisting the move.
For example, if a TV set now is retailed at the maximum price of
Rs 9,500, an additional Rs 500 (assuming that's the licence fee)
would take the price to Rs10,000, which would attract a different
set of excise duties.
"In a bid to avoid higher excise duty (different price categories
attract different sets of excise duties in India), the electronics
goods manufacturers are not much in favour of a licence fee being
imposed at the point when goods are sold," a Prasar Bharati source
explained.
Why cannot the corporation resort to the mode of licence fee collection
that was prevalent few decades back when a fee on radio sets was
collected on an annual basis?
Simply because the cost of the whole process of licence fee collection
would outstrip the amount collected and would also be cumbersome,
sources point out, adding that earlier the fee was deposited in
post offices by the radio set owners. "Maintaining the annual record
and the final collection these days may prove to be too bothersome,"
a senior corporation official said.
Moreover, the government agencies too, are not too enthused, though
the licence fee proposal would be discussed in detail in a board
meeting of the Prasar Bharati, slated to be held in the middle of
next month.
According to estimates, there are 125 million radio sets and 80
million TV sets in the country. If the government gives approval
to this proposal, the licence fee collections will be a few hundred
million per annum, an estimate points out. But then Prasar Bharati
probably, cannot impose a licence fee with retrospective effect.
It can be only done for all TV and radio sets sold as and when the
proposal is notified.
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