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NEW
DELHI: Keeping in view the expenses to be incurred by the
public service broadcaster for the forthcoming Commonwealth
Games, the grant-in-aid to Prasar Bharati is a substantial
Rs 16.36 billion for 2009-10.
The
interim Union budget, presented today by Pranab Mukherjee
who is holding the Finance portfolio during the recovery of
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shows an increase over the
revised estimates for 2008-09 to Rs 12.69 billion, as against
the budgetary allocation of Rs 11.42 billion for that year.
While
the allocations are for the entire financial year beginning
from 1 April this year, Mukherjee has sought funds only for
the first four months of the financial year. Thus, the new
government, expected to be in place by May, will present a
full-fledged budget.
Perhaps
as a consequence of the recent government announcement that
it will continue to treat the 38,000-odd employees of the
public service broadcaster as government servants, the Information
and Broadcasting Ministry’s investment in Prasar Bharati
has been reduced to Rs 2.56 billion in 2009-10 from the actual
investment of Rs 2.62 billion in the budget for 2008-09. This
is also substantially lower than the investment that had been
proposed in the budget presented last year, which was Rs 3.26
billion.
While
the grant-in-aid is to cover the gap in resources for meeting
revenue expenditure, the investment is to finance the capital
expenditure of the pubcaster.
Meanwhile,
last year’s budget had also proposed a loan of Rs 3.26
billion for Prasar Bharati towards setting up an ‘International
Broadcasting Centre’ and other facilities as a host broadcaster
for the Commonwealth Games 2010 which was in addition to the
grant-in-aid for 2008-09. Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com
that the absence of mention of this loan in the budget documents
only meant that there was no fresh loan but the commitment
of last year would be honoured.
The
total allocation for the I&B Ministry this year is Rs
24.68 billion which is substantially higher than the budgetary
allocation for 2008-09 which was Rs 19.10 billion and also
higher than the revised estimates of Rs 20.25 billion.
Interestingly,
there is no reference to the stimulus package for the media
announced by Minister of state for I&B Anand Sharma earlier
this month, and the only package announced so far has been
some relief on customs duty on newsprint, announced by the
Finance Ministry.
Interestingly,
the allocation to the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre has
been raised from Rs 30 million to Rs 48 million. The EMMC
was set up for monitoring television and radio channels for
violation of programme and advertising codes.
The
allocation for the film sector is Rs 956.7 million for 2009-10
as against Rs 848.5 million last year. In addition, there
is a separate allocation of Rs 71.5 million for Certification
of films.
Interestingly,
the investment in the National Film Development Corporation
(NFDC) has been reduced to just Rs 100,000, perhaps because
the revised estimates that the Corporation meant to develop
growth of good cinema spent only Rs 100,000 of the Rs 60 million
invested in it in the budget for 2008-09.
The
allocation for Press Information Services has been raised
from Rs 358.5 million in last year’s budget to Rs 566.9
million. Sources said this increase is to meet the expenses
to set up media pool services for the Commonwealth Games.
Interestingly,
this also includes funds for a subsidy for running India’s
news pool desk of non-aligned news agencies pool through the
Press Trust of India despite the fact that the news pool has
been non-existent for several years.
The
allocation for adverting and visual publicity has been raised
from Rs 743.6 million in the last budget to Rs 917.5 million
for 2009-10 to meet the extra expenses following the increase
in the advertising rates of the Directorate of Advertising
and Visual Publicity. However, this is lower than the revised
estimates of Rs 1014.9 million.
The lumpsum provision for projects and schemes of the Ministry
for development in the north-eastern region and Sikkim has
been increased from Rs 732.1 million in the revised estimates
of 2008-09 to Rs 900.6 million in 2009-10.
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